The Silent Hunter...

Jumping Ship?

2009-02-26T16:52:00.000-08:00

Ive found a new blogging software ive simply just fallen in love with.

i know i know this is tradition with me, but i always gotta be advancing to the next best thing! Its how i roll! Its how i live and remain excited :D
Ive loved using Blogger throughout the past 2 years and i have ZERO intention of deleting or editing ANY of it, so itll remain.

But if your a good person and visit http://kyle.blackjagstudios.com to come here, youll be happy to know you need not change your links when the time comes. To those following me via RSS feed, you guys might need to update it... but again, just hammer the address above and youll eventually come across a squeaky clean Wordpress powered blog.
It seems like a rather permanent solution for me, its not missing anything and has all the power id want out of a blogging software, so i dont see myself switching from that for a few years :)

The chronicles of my life will continue!

We Are Live!

2009-02-03T12:33:00.001-08:00

Its now official, AnthroMedia is apart of the Anthropodcast Lineup Syndication

Make sure to check out our listing on http://www.anthropodcast.com and join in the community!

-k

Oh Snap!

2009-02-02T10:24:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone!

Its been a little while since ive really "updated" so heres the scoop:

No im not working on an animation project, nor am i working on a game right now. But i am however running something COMPLETELY different: Podcasts.

Ive been slowly transforming myself into something of a makeshift audio engineer to try and come up with a few faux-radio show broadcasts and get them out on the internet.

Without much dilly-dallying, lets get right to the point, there are FOUR separate broadcasts at time of writing:

- Hour of Power FM, Hosts: DJDarkViper / RapterX [Bi-Weekly Weekend Syndication opposite of CWR3.0]
- AnthroMedia, Hosts: DJDarkViper / Kit Cheetah [Bi-Weekly Wednesday Syndication]
- Crash Without Recovery 3.0, Hosts: DJDarkViper / Sighness [Bi-Weekly Weekend Syndication opposite of HOP-FM]
- Coyotecast, Host: DJDarkViper (with regular guests) [Daily Syndication]

The website the fascilitate these is my own: Black Jaguar Studios. The website will be transformed into "JagRADIO brought to you by BlackJagStudios.com"
However, Anthromedia has JUST negotiated to be apart of the Anthropod Lineup at Anthropodcast.com. We look forward to working with Flain and his ragtag bunch of fuzzy miscreants as we deliver the skinny on all things Anthropomorphic themed entertainment media.

Ill post an update when things are ready!

-k

Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff (uncensored)

2009-01-22T11:11:00.001-08:00

Iconic piece of my childhood growing up.

i still love this song.

John McCain Gets BarackRoll'd

2009-01-19T10:37:00.001-08:00

Warcraft Sequel Lets You Play A Character Playing Warcraft

2009-01-14T09:53:00.001-08:00

Linkin Park Parody

2009-01-13T13:00:00.001-08:00

BAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

now i actually like Linkin Park to a degree, but even with that, this is PRICELESS

Its a JibJab Life

2008-12-02T10:37:00.000-08:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Perfecting this passage

2008-11-11T16:01:00.001-08:00

"
Some Look. Others See.
Some Realize. Others Perceive.
Some Think. Others Acknowledge.
Some Act. Others Embrace.
Some Win. Others Succeed.
"
~Kyle, WIP

looking to perfect this little 5 line poem thing... with some better words to fit the rhymes..

The complexity of English Literature

2008-11-07T14:34:00.000-08:00

I was walking back to work, sipping on Pepsi from Dairy Queen when i noticed the sign "No Entry, Buses only" and i got to thinking, "Buses" sounds really stupid as a plural.

From now on, im going to call them "Busi" (Buhs-eye), i will make it work, and convince all authorities to join me. It sounds more sophisticated, and i dont feel ive lost IQ by uttering it.

Im also bringing back "Porch Monkey" from a derogatory slang term to a different form of derogatory slang terminology,
and im also bringing back "groovy" and "wicked"

whos with me?

For my Brothers Birthday

2008-11-05T18:32:00.000-08:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Happy Birthday Man!

a little change in direction

2008-11-02T23:41:00.001-08:00

Ok so a while back i was picked up by LukeWarm Media for development on project LightSpire, a CryEngine2 mod with commercial purposes in mind.
After about a month of struggling and trying to fit myself into the pipeline, ive finally reached a boiling point. Personally, i dont think the quality of my animation could match up to what the project is looking for. I know the knowledge and technical knowhow, but im still green. And green is where i shall remain for now.

Putting things into perspective, if i want to animate, i want to be good. I couldn't live with myself passing off mediocre quality to my boss(es). So in the near future i plan on attending one more school, this time the online Animation Mentor, hopefully to quell my technical boundry of knowing somethings wrong, but not being able to come up with a good solution to fill the gap. Id like to be the type of person who can find nuances and fix them with ease. Also some general overall practices would be ideal.

So for now, im putting aside my dream of working on assets for a game company, instead shifting focus towards being a Website Infrastructure Programmer and Community Manager for a future promising game company.
No doubt the work i do will look nice on my resume, and with my current job in the eLearning Industry for about 3 years as an Actionscript Programmer / Technical Assistant / and Troubleshooting Specialist, ive pretty much solidified the fact i can get hired into a web design firm for something, from HTML to PHP/MySQL and Actionscript. Hell im willing to learn new things like Java in order to make websites work nicely. I wont learn ASP though, fuck that.

Working on the website(s) for both the company and game site, is a different kind of work for instance I still need direction from the main guy behind it all, but i get my freedom back. Its far less demanding on my stress levels, and i look forward to making the best damn sites i can make.
Not my preferred industry, but its my second preferred. Which is alot more than i can say about eLearning.

Who knows, maybe im not cut out to be an animator, and ive just been kidding myself this whole time. Maybe website programming is my call and im just trying to deny it. I generally think the work ive done for animation has been some pretty good stuff, especially for the little amount of training i ever got with the subject, and how green i still am about it all. I still get compliments all the time from random people and people i know alike,

i dunno, im a little 'lost with a sense of direction' if that makes any sense whatsoever.

maybe ill continue to work on my machinima projects on the side...

Barack Roll

2008-10-30T14:48:00.001-07:00

Epic Win.

I has new PeeEssPee Game

2008-10-23T13:36:00.001-07:00

Picked me up a little "Star Ocean First Departure" at EB during my break today and deicded to celebrate over a burger and coke at A&W.

While i was munching away thinking about how much fun im going to have visiting an RPG i never got to play that exists as an upgraded version part 1 of my absolute favorite RPG series to date, i decided to crack open the manual (of course ditching the French version). I was surprised to see, an actual instruction booklet. Opening it up it explained all gameplay mechanics, button layout hotsheets, a registration form to Squenix, and, hold on to your hats: Character Profiles.
Seriously people, THIS is how you do an instruction manual! This is packaging for games 101.

now i know some game sout there (mostly RPGs) still feature such things, but i never felt compelled to browse the thin instruction manual to Tales of Vesperia, and only to see 2 little character profiles for Yuri and Repede and basic explanations as to what may entail in the game.

can we seriously go back to doing what we used to do with Instruction manuals? i mean i know Game Design 201 is all about being able to tell the player everything intuitively while playing the game and i can understand not wanting to spoil something or details to early, but these make great reading material for those who dont have interest in Books. Back story of events leading up to the game itself, profiles, weapon data, monsters, all of this information USED to exist, but much like the Health Bar since Halo, its gone the way of the dodo in place of manuals consisting entirely of how to put the disc in the tray and turn it on.

Anyways, im stoked to play me some Star Ocean.

Oh and im about halfway through The Brotherhood on Saints Row 2 now. Ronin and Sons of Somedi have already met utter defeat.

OH NO A CHANGE?!

2008-10-22T12:34:00.001-07:00

Decided to switch to Blogspots hosting for ... various reasons.

#1. being: features. Theres alot of stuff Blogger doesn't want you to do if your remotely hosted, such as neat little widgets.

thats really about it, plus the template upgrade was a nice thing, cleaned up all the junk on the right bar and allows me to directly edit the HTML of the whole thing without getting screwed up or overwritten when i publish remotely.

Make sure to hit up the "Followers" widget! And check out the "frequently" updated friends blogs -.-; come on guys, update update update! The point of these thigns is to randomly throw down thoughts, lets continue on with that!

Immmm BAAAAAaaaack!

2008-10-21T12:20:00.001-07:00

So as you may (or may not have noticed) my domain name expired, therefor i couldn't do anything with the site till that was renewed. While it could have been attended to and dealt with quicker, better now than if my domain expired for too long and some ad company snatched it up. Much like my beloved blackjaguarstudios.com :( R.I.P.

So after all is said and done, i now have a place i can stash my thoughts.

Also dont forget that my DeviantArt is my home on the internet, this being just a random place for random things for me to jot down when im bored.

So, E3 is coming back to normal eh? About bloody time i must say. After 2 full years of being the joke of the industry, and the punching bag for everyone on the internet, i guess it would be smart to bring back what wasn't broke in the first place.
They originally scaled it down because small developers were whining their asses off about not getting enough coverage comapred to the bigger companies, so the board members went and cut down all but media access and choice developers. What resulted was a snore fest and the smaller copanies STILL getting no coverage.
All for naught m'afraid.
Heres to a happy June '09 when we welcome back the giant party and celebration it used to be! *raises glass*
I hope by the time it rolls around ill have established myself as someone important enough to qualify entrance past the bouncers, going to LA in June would be sweet, and then over to Pittsburge for AnthroCon in July. Thatd be intense... if anything i guess i just watch GameSpot and GameTrailers again for my coverage of E3. Not IGN, god no, im not willing to poison myself over not going and im not that desperate.

on another note, Ben Croshaw is still awesome.

oh ya and this is pretty badass i must say

Jamis first VGMV

2008-10-20T15:58:00.001-07:00

enjoy

Family Guy Office Space Stewie and Brian

2008-10-06T12:50:00.001-07:00

Just. Awesome.

Allow me to share something

2008-10-03T10:56:00.001-07:00

a conversation i was having with Sighness just now

Sighness:
XD

Sighness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoCD9TwLrVs&feature=related

Sighness:
It's really old bu ya...PS3 one looks kinda bad haha

DJDarkViper:
you know this kid sorta bothers me
in his vid
he complained about ther ebeing NO upscaling filters at all to smoothen out the graphics

Sighness:
hehe

DJDarkViper:
"PS1/PS2 upscaling in 1.80! But it's not REAL upscaling. Why? Cause the polygons themselves aren't rendered in high def, the entire image output is just put through a filter to make it look upscaled. The same method is used for upscaling DVD picture quality to 720p/1080i/1080p."
yet he writes this

Sighness:
Haha

DJDarkViper:
so complains about there being no filter, complaints when there is a filter
damned if ya do, damne dif ya dont

Sighness:
XD

DJDarkViper:
god i hate people so much
and really

Sighness:
Hahah

DJDarkViper:
its mostly jsut people on the internet i hate so much
all a bunch of squabbling smacktards

DJDarkViper:
because people have noticed
that people react more positively to negative outbursts and crying, than people who raise valid points or have something nice to say

DJDarkViper:
id like to bring up the fact that if this were Ghostbusters 2.
Well

Sighness:
....I wasn't up for Ghost Busters 2 >_>.

DJDarkViper:
i dont think i need to eplain where this would be going XD
.............but youd seen and understoof Ghsotbusters 2 right?

Sighness:
Ya and didn't like it

DJDarkViper:
well regardless thats not my ponit

Sighness:
XD

DJDarkViper:
the giant amalgomous blog was made of pure hatrid and angriness

DJDarkViper:
and that was just New York
imagine if it spawns from The Internet
world would probably be consumed, twice over
take this kid for the very instance

DJDarkViper:
he has in his possession, a gaming machine with which the word has yet to match in terms of power and functionality. THis thing will literally allow you to do anything to it, including throwing a whole new OS onto it, no problem. It supports memory cards, HUGE hard drive, built in wireless, and the whole nine yards
anything and everything youd EVER want out of a gaming console
and if your lucky enough to get it, even BC for older games

DJDarkViper:
and all this kid does, is exploit the fact Sony didn't put a blur filter to smooth out the jaggies?
Give me, a fucking break.

Sighness:
XD

DJDarkViper:
Backwards Compatability, is a gift, not a privilage.

Sighness:
Indeed

DJDarkViper:
There was no BC for the NEs on the SuperNES, right? >_>

DJDarkViper:
in fact, PS2 did the same shit to PS1 games as the PS3 does to PS2 games. The graphics look worse, because its emulation

Sighness:
I didn't notice much...

DJDarkViper:
the point is, you have a new machine than can play your old shit haha

Sighness:
X)

DJDarkViper:
if its graphics you care about, get a PS3 game, you play a retro game for its gameplay

The Tags

2008-10-02T23:54:00.001-07:00

My custom dog tags came in today.

in reality though, the silencers jsut arent as cool as i originally thought theyd be, i actually miss the clinkclacking they always made. But in retrospect, im glad i got the silencers, foremergencies sake. Ill post a pic of them when i get my mem card back into my camera outside of laziness :)

Houston? We have a Crysis!

2008-10-02T11:30:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

so i finally ran out and grabbed Crysis, for a particular reason which i wont get into right now, id prefer this news be just a little more solid before i say anything further. For better or worse ill divulge what im talking about in a week or so

Also, Kane and Lynch is actually a really good game. Bought it ages back, never bothered with it. Installed it on a whim of boredom, and i couldn't shut it off. Sure its got its faults, but it does so many things well they're easy to forgive,a nd never cripple the experience.

I also reinstalled XFire, http://www.xfire.com/profile/kyle1986/
Ive been updating with screenshots and videos, ill post some here

first he vids:
http://www.xfire.com/video/2d08c/ < Kane and Lynch: Swatting an Noisy Fly
http://www.xfire.com/video/2dc06/ < Crysis: a Real Long Sleep
http://www.xfire.com/video/2dc08/ < Crysis: Rambo Style

and now some choice screenies

Coooool

2008-09-29T16:37:00.001-07:00

havent really been too active in the C&C world, but this is awesome regardless

WHAR WIPZ?!

2008-09-29T09:37:00.001-07:00

no WIPs over the weekend, was a bit busy, i have been subtly tweaking things here and there when i find the time, but not much improvement at all. Theres some personal battles here with what to do with some scenes. Such as pose holds.

When i do them, im near perfectly still, when i see it in the game, it looks horrible. Improvising some movements just looks gross so, i got to figure something out soon or im going to go nuts. :s

Bear Attacks WIP3

2008-09-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

Bear Attacks WIP3 from KyleHarrison on Vimeo.

Flash 10 CS4 First Impressions Review pt 3

2008-09-25T22:44:00.001-07:00

Flash 10 First Impressions Review pt 2

2008-09-25T14:47:00.001-07:00

Flash 10 First Impressions Review pt 1

2008-09-25T14:46:00.001-07:00

Bear Attacks WIP 2

2008-09-25T09:17:00.001-07:00

Bear Attacks WIP2 from KyleHarrison on Vimeo.

improved capture, this time with EYES! and Facial Expressions!

So far, this is a custom character, with custom textures (his shirt says "Gary" btw) that i painted some modifications on (i painted the facial hair :p).
Hes a custom build essentially, and this is him speaking the line hes going to speak.

Next up i animate the body gestures synching up to this line :) Basiaclly, the fun part!

This was captured directly in the Choreography Tool btw, hence why the audios choppy on capture.

Theres a particular "sh" phonetic i dont much like, ill put it on my list of things to fix during the polish phase :)

Vlogosphere Sept 20th 2008 - All Grown Up

2008-09-21T00:02:00.001-07:00

going to the devmeet, and i bought a new toy to help better myself

Tales of Vesperia - Quick First Impression

2008-09-19T09:28:00.001-07:00

Vlogosphere Sept 18th 2008 - Tales of McDonalds

2008-09-18T23:18:00.001-07:00

after coming home from from hanging with the boys, DV wants nothing more than to play some Xbox 360 with his new game...

CourtEngine: The First Objection

2008-09-17T15:17:00.001-07:00

maybe this will come back to be finished :) itd make a great portfolio piece for programming :)

Vlogosphere Sept 17th 2008 - Working form Home

2008-09-17T12:30:00.001-07:00

movie audio screws up massively around the 2:20 mark :\ wonder what happened

Vlogosphere Sept 16th 2008 - Company

2008-09-17T12:29:00.001-07:00

day 2 at the house

Vlogosphere Sept 15th 2008 - New Place

2008-09-16T10:02:00.001-07:00

The new place

2008-09-15T09:45:00.001-07:00

last night was a busy one, i dont even recall doing very much but heres how it goes:
1. Watched the last half of Season 2 of The Office (us version)
2. Drove, from K-town to Westbank to Summerland to Westbank again
3. Dismantled my entire room
4. Reassembled in a new location
5. Hotrigged and retrofitted all things up now called "The Entertainment Center", i have all my consoles hooked up and ready to play at a given moments notice:
- Sega Genesis
- Sega Saturn
- Sega Dreamcast
- Super Nintendo
- Nintendo Wii
- Sony Playstation 3
- Microsoft Xbox 360

its pretty sweet, now i jsut gotta get this damne duniversal remote powered up via some sweet sweet AAA action in order to get the Input button to work to enter AV cable display mode :p

aside form the living arranges are actually pretty fucking sweet, theres not much more i can really say other than: YES! Peace and Quiet!

im about to play some S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear SKy when i get home, but first i gotta lay down some carpet :)

more awesome shit while commuting

2008-09-12T13:47:00.001-07:00

I ran over a bird today in kelowna.

But i didn't.

confused? So was i.

Driving down Harvey Ave, there was a bird on the road, who didn't move by the time my car reached it, despite me honking. Curious on the health of the creature, i looked in my rear view mirror.
The bird was fine. Even though my muffle is slightly dangling from my manifold, the bird was still alive.
Until 5 second later, as a truck was following me, but that's where i saw the magic happen: The bird ducked as it tried to get something off the road, effectively making our cars too tall to hit it.

Brave little shit.

NWN2 Playtime

2008-09-11T15:30:00.001-07:00

Well it appears me and roommate Ben will finally get some time to play a few hours of Neverwinter Nights 2, its only taken about a frigging WEEK to setup, including all the Vista specific fixes and malarkey. Now we successfully setup an internet based game the other night before being herded out of the house, so this time were actually going to play.

unless the story sequences are so boring we logout :p

The Office

2008-09-11T09:41:00.001-07:00

started watching the Office again, i believe im in the middle of Season 2 or something. You know i actually didn't like the entirety of season 1 and the beginnings of season 2 were just boring.
But man, haha, ever since the Halloween episode, true colors are showing and im beginning to see why this is a liked show :)

man all the weird stuff you see

2008-09-11T09:34:00.001-07:00

saw a dog walking itself today at an intersection. It was rather interesting. No people were around him, he was totally by himself. He waited at an intersection until the signal came up that the crosswalk was safe, he then walked across the intersection and proceeded on his merry way down the road.

and with that, check this out

ugh damn....

2008-09-10T15:03:00.001-07:00

While looking a TV in the classifides section of the paper for the basement suite ill be renting out, i happened ot stumble across an ad, the ad sume dup said
"German Shepherd 8wk old pups, $300/each" with contact information.

*big sigh*.......... its the dog i want, its the age i wanted my pet to be at, and at a price i can afford, and in an area i dont have to drive very far to pick up the puppy, the only problem with the deal is: i was rejected to having a pet in the new place....

goddamnit. Excuse me while i go feel bummed out somewhere else >_>

The time approaches

2008-09-10T10:02:00.001-07:00

Its almost here, its almost time, its the 10th, meaning officially 4 more days until i give up the key to my existing room.
And i move into my new basement suite.

its going to be interesting, not having friends around at any given time, but then, that may be a blessing in disguise. This'll force me to get a life outside of the house if i wish to remain sane, and for the days where i want to be left alone, its totally plausible :)

im stoked!

Blah its been 2 flogging weeks?!

2008-09-05T10:57:00.001-07:00

My oh my time flies by when your busy as all hell.

hats been up with me? For anyone who reads this... lol

The deal is sealed, i get to spend my Sunday on the 14th Moving to ym new place with the aid of my mother, my little brother Stephen, and Jami. In the mean time my rooms become a giant mess as i find terribly little motivation to try and maintain with my last few days left at the house. Seriously, only 9 more days, and im super frigging stoked!

Ive been visiting DeviantArt lately with an unhealthy obsession, but ive managed to do something while doing so. Ive managed to get hired for the *Armed-Anthros club as a Reforming and PR Director, to try and bring the dying club back from the dead. Its amazing what a little portfolio can do (*maggot-corps anyone ;]). I havent done much with the club at press time besides write alot in my notebook for potential changes and future activities, but i have a good feeling about this one, and my only credential for getting hired is that they should see an activity increase, as long as more than 2 people partake in the next contest, ive done my job successfully :)

Speaking of DA, im attending this months Kelowna DeviantArtists DevMeet, apparently theres Lazer tag and hanging out involved haha im pretty stoked to meet some new people!

I dont have much else to say other than check out these sweet YouTUbe Vids, this time with a much overdue Dark Knight theme to it.

Can i has Kamra plz?

2008-08-21T09:46:00.001-07:00

Thanks to local resident Ben for the opportunity. Ive been looking into a digital camera for at least 5 years now but never deemed $400+ for a decent one worth the price of admission to take random shots at moderate quality.

So he lets me purches his Nikon Coolpix 4600 for $25, due to the fact it had no batteries, memory card, or USB connector.
Well thankfully for me i dont need the USB connector, my PC has the memory card readers first off, also i dont have a true MicroSD card, its a MiniSD (the really tiny ones) and i use a MicroSD Converter which i slot the thing into, i also have a USB adapter for said miniSD, so im covered in that department already!
I just needed batteries. And so i did.

Heres a shot i took with it

aaaand heres what the camera looks liek for realz

this is cool :D

The Land of Concentration part 3

2008-08-18T10:00:00.001-07:00

Yo,

please excuse the delay of this blog, im not sure anyone cares anyways, nto like this is some big trafficked blog or anything.
But enough of that onto whats important: My levels of concentration.

We were off to a rocky start, what with the Tropic Thunder fiasco, but Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, i took extra step initiatives and did something.
on Friday, me and Steve went to the school and i did some moderate drawing and crappy keyframed flash stick man thinger. Totally uninspired flash thing, but the drawing felt good. I went with the intention of animating something, but instead i decided to brush up on my Anthro character art and seeked out a few tutorials online.

On Saturday, it was pretty much a gong show, me and Steve spent the day ploaying around with music creation software, ACiD and FL Studio to be more precise. I think we may have figure dout FLS tudio without having to resort to tutorials, haha.
Later that day, had a meeting with the Silver Shot crew, but that didn't fly unfortunately, so we ended up watching a bunch of AVGN videos.
Also Stephen and Jami and I, beat Saints Row, it only took till 3:30AM.

on Sunday however, after i dropped Stephen back off at home (around 11AM when i got back i think) i locked myself in my room, checked my remaining messages, and with nothing else to do, my xbox downstairs, nothing to play on PS3, and my Wii required to much movement, i finally checked out 11 second club again for this months competition.

K now honestly, the clip is in ALL french or some foreign language i cant understand, im assuming this is to give free reign over everything but i dont have the foggiest of what id do with it.
So saying "Fuck it" i went to MovieWavs.com and surfed for good clips.
I settled on 2 clips from "Snatch" and pieced them together to create my own challenge. This is however, 24 seconds instead of 11. But the first good chunks worth wont involve any lip synching, its all narration so thatll ease it up a bit.

Here the clip: http://www.blackjagstudios.com/stuff/Pikeys_Clip.mp3

Ill be posting the storyboards next when they're done

Also a bit of good news, my drum kit is on its way :D

with that i leave you with the daily YouTube

i highly encourage watching the whole "The Heist" by Derren Brown, its incredibly fascinating!

The Land of Concentration day 2

2008-08-15T10:31:00.001-07:00

Well its day 2 and i havent even started yet.

Operation: Get Shit Done; is still not underway as i originally planned.
The other day (Wednesday) was the actual premiere of Tropic Thunder, a movie i was killing myself waiting to see. When i was informed it was the 13th instead of the 15th (like the posters said) i jumped at the immediate chance to see the earliest showing i could.
After watchign that rediculously awesome movie, i came back to see Cole Doner drive into the driveway, and opted to make me watch Full Metal Jacket, because i had to see it.
By the time that movie was finished, it was 12:30 and i needed to get to sleep.

Enter the next day, Day 2 of when i planned on doing this 'cleansing of distractions', i was talking to my brother online about Tropic Thunder, and got really pissed at me. Apparently i had told him i promised to see it with him on opening day.
Well its a good thing for him i really wanted to watch it again, so after work i hopped in my car, drove 35 minutes to his town, picked him up, drive for 45 minutes back to Kelowna, and set up a time to watch it with roommate Cody and his girlfriend.
Once that was finished me and Stephen chilled instead of worked, i turned on Beetlejuice/geuse and he chatted online on my computer.
He jammed on his guitar, i practiced some drumming on the Rock Band drum pads, despite they werent hooked up i just tried to imagine the sound each one made. It was easy because i couldn't exactly hear where i was fucking up, rather it sounded good in my head XD
Then we turne don I AM Legend and fell asleap. Well i did anyways.

This is now Day 3, i started downloading trial software of some music cretion software but couldn't install them beofre having to head out to work. So Stephens in charge of monitoring the progress with that.
The day is young, and while Stephen is here i dont actually beleive ill get much done in the way of Animation stuff, but we can certainly figure out stuff musically.

anyways whatever, the moral of the story is: Movie Posters a dirty filthy liars, and should never be trusted with information, or candy.
mmm candy..

With that done, i present to you, the daily YouTube: today is a double feature of Americas Got Talent Ozzy Impersonators.
Watch the first one, then watch the second one, then repeat int hat order one more time.
Or do whatever you want, i dont really care :)

Now Begins a Journey, to the Land of Concentration and Loudness

2008-08-13T10:54:00.001-07:00

So ive been going on for years now on a personal mission to own every console and have a healthy selection of games for each system i own.
I have accomplished this lifelong goal of mine.
To any standard nerd this is a dream come true. To msot normal people this is a bit excessive. To a person like me: Why the hell did i do it?

First let me bring you back a small ways: I never grew up with money. With me i owned 1 console per generation (try as i might), so i had to make the right decisions, and i only had a paltry selection of my own games to choose from. Otherwise i was renting.
Some nights while others would dream about naked women riding around on scooters while doing gymnasi- sorry those were still mine, but meanwhile i dreamt one day i would choose a generation to own every system within. Then id go back to dreaming about naked women on scooters.

Back to the point, i do now own everything. Xbox360 Premium w/ Gold Live account, Playstation 3 80GB, Wii, PSP Slim, and DS Fatty. All 5 current generation mainstream systems sit atop and below my TV on a daily basis. Begging for me to use them to help justify the thousands of dollars i saw beside me. And thus i would.

So here i am now, an aspiring animator who needs practice, a game designer who needs time, and in about 2 weeks time ill be the proud owner of a new drum kit.
Where does gaming fit in? Here the thing: I wont let it.

Ive decided for the greater good of myself, to lock away about 98% of my games, all my previous-gen systems, and leave only the Wii and PS3 out, with 1 game per system.
On the PS3 ill leave GTA4 out, and with the Wii im leaving Okami out.
the 360, its games, and everytghing below gets put away for an unspecified amount of time.

Whats the point of all this? Concentration. I cant guarantee myself itll be liek the old days, where becaus ei didn't have much in the way of gaming, id say to myself "K im gonna open flash and continue to work on Transparent, i only got 1 more week for that deadline" but any facet of that back is more welcome than anything ive been trying so far.

So the deal is this: cutting back about 80% of my gaming habbit, putting fourth effort on doing animations, learning the Drums, and continuing to do the best job i can with the Silver Creek team.

I hope this works >_> otherwise im hopeless, ill be documenting my experience in this blog, making it yet another "Adventure" in something.

on a lighter note, heres the drum kit i puchased, jsut gotta wait 2 weeks for its arrival :D

if i had a tail, itd be wagigng so hard itd knock people out >_>im SUPER stoked for this.

Im going to rip off my little brother's idea for his blog and do a "Song of the Day" thing, not-sponsored in part by YouTube, Vimeo, etc. But itll be a ":Video of the Day" thing

Last.fm Widgets

2008-07-30T14:52:00.001-07:00

Now you can see what im listening to and my top artists and stuff.

nifty.

(check it out on the right)

http://www.last.fm/user/DJDarkViper << My Actual last.fm profile

This is hot

2008-07-24T11:18:00.001-07:00

and i want it on my wall.

Wouldn't mind one of Psycho Mantis either, then the Beauty and the Beasts.. k.. k.. im gonna stop now before i get too excited >_>

Casper: Theres Good boo To-night

2008-07-22T10:53:00.001-07:00

i--i jus-- i cannot beleive... omg...

i havent seen this episode of Casper since i was.. holy god tiny. its the episode i remember most vividly, i remember at the time in elementry, Foxes were my favorite animal, and this episode almost brought me to tears.
it almost does now for the nostalic factor of it all lol

LMAO

2008-07-22T10:37:00.001-07:00

This is just too awesome LOL
id eat here, ALL the time!

Starting off the day right

2008-07-07T09:57:00.001-07:00

nothing like getting caught speeding in a construction zone in the morning eh? Oh ya i jsut WANTED to get rid of that $362, it didn't need it anyways >_>

A first time for anything part 2

2008-07-07T00:30:00.001-07:00

The deed is done. My good friend Ryan has finally gotten himself a wife, the lovely Christine. They're actually a good couple and everytime i see them together (which admittedly isn't exactly often) the chi flows smoothly.

The wedding was very nice, i showed up directly at 10 to 3 (the wedding started at 3) and had enough time to find a seat before watching the hour long ceremony. Watching my friend become married was an experience. But the moment he said "i do" to his new wife, it hit me like a sledgehammer in the chest, not because i was emotional about the whole thing (its the manly thing to say while i sit here and blog at 12AM), but because it made me realize, thats pretty much exactly what i want to.
--TANGENT--
Ive never actually understood why men get cold feet when it comes to marriage, ive never understood why an adult male becomes so freaked out at the thought of a wife and kids, i guess its just me. Ive always wanted that, ever since i was a kid. That being said, im a giant chicken when it comes to conversing with prospective women. I dunno it jsut happens, i struggle to find somehting to say, awkward silence happens, and suddenly im boring the other person to death. I want to meet a nice gamer chick who is also single. Ive met plenty of gamer chicks and always find the conversations entertaining, but theyre never single. Oh well, ill find something soon.
--/TANGENT--

So after the wedding were told the reception time and place and i think "This woujld eb a perfect time to run home and blog about what jsut happened" of course id be locked out of my house so i decided to meander around Penticton instead. Grabbed me an Ice Capp and travelled all around place. I know with these gas prices its getting harder and harder to jsutify cruising, but i didn't care, it felt nice. Eventually i found my way by the mall, and i saw the PetCetera store to my left, so i thought id go check out the dogs for adoption area. Of course its jsut cats, im told i need to go to the SPCA to see the dogs. And of course theyd be closed on a Sunday, oh well. So i ran to the Mall and went to CDPlus and found the new Disturbed album, i dunno, nothing about the contents of the CD has stood out to me so far, but then i was barely paying attention. I was too busy daydreaming about owning a dog for myself, and traveling around with them in the car (as i see everyone else frickin doing, sparking the day dreaming).
I went o the mall again to kill off the remaining hour of wait, and i found my way to EB games. Lookin sharp in my new jeans, hair, sunglasses, etc. I picked up the PS3 controller and played Battlefiled Bad Company. The WHOLE time im playing this beast, these three kids on a bench about 17 feet away, stood there. Occassionally i could hear them cough out "PS3" and a loud "I WANNA PLAY THE PS3". All the while im rolling my eyes. Im not gonna give it up if they think whining about it or giving not so subtle hints behind my back is going to win them. So i kept playing, and they kept wining. Fourty-Five minutes pass of course, and theyre STILL behind me. Ill give em kudos for determination. So while im totally not doing the right thing in BFBC and im being all sneaky and accurate and doing the game on Hard with ease, i finally set a bomb off undernethe me to set me back to the checkpoint, (on purpose) and put the controller down. I then start walking away and i see the kids run up to it. First thing i hear is "how do i play this" meanwhile the fucktard jumped on the SECOND controller port.
Fucking. N00bs.
So i stood and watched and it was a trainwreck, but i couldn't continue laughing ast their shitty performance any longer, i had to go to the reception. So i told the kid "to blow up a wall, stand next to it and fire a rocket at it" promptly killing himself, i laughed and left.

At the reception, i was a little shakey, stiff, and nervous. I was at a party where i knew NO ONE but the groom, the wife, and the grooms good friend (and my friend) Joe. Thats it. Everyone else was a new face to me.
So naturally im a little intimidated, i wanna meet some people and have a good time but i cant muster up the gumption to do anything about it. Eventually this Jeff guy beside me noted theres a bar right beside us, and because the reception was to be alcohol free, we decided to make a getaway to the Bar for a drink and return back. I followed, i met up with my good friend Pierre Smirnoff, had a good time, and made my way back to the reception. The drink, loosened me up something fierce. I wasn't drunk, nor wa si in a haze, i just felt alot more confident about my actions and how little i cared about what others thought. Now i knew i needed to drive home so i stopped drinking right then and there and since ive been gulping down Water like were running out of it tommorrow or something.
Danced, talked it up, made a fool out of myself once or twice in small concentrated groups, got some nice shots with Joe and Ryan,, and i stayed till the end of the party.

Ok, that last part has some significance. To anybody who has ever partied with ME, knows i have a nasty habbit of cutting out early. And for various reasons but msotly jsut caus eim not necessarily feeling it. Im not club hopper, i dont go to bars very often, and even house parties i go to bed early at. Im not a partier (which also explains why i dont exactly know how to chat up random women :p), so i always duck out. I stayed til the end opf this one, and i wont lie, i even thought about going home around 10PM, but then somethin happened: i realized i was having fun, so i didn't cut out at my projected time. Instead i left when i realized everyone else had left, and i said my congrats and 'seeyalaters' to Ryan and Christine.

In short, it was a good day for sure.

Man its so crazy, my friend is married... i still dont know what to think about that lol. Oh well.

Conratulations Ryan and Christine! Congratulations :) and thanks for a wonderful night from me :)

-k

A first time for Anything

2008-07-06T09:02:00.001-07:00

Later today, im about to witness one thing i didn;t actually expect to be doing for at least another few years. But here it is.

No one would know that im talking about a good friend of mines Wedding. I never blogged about it or really talked about it in any sense because i still cant beleive its happening. Even as i sit her ein my chair, im oblivious to how my friend is feeling right now because, well, ive never had to do this before.
Im not actually DOING anything thee, im purly just a witness on Ryans side. But im still nervous as hell. Why is that?

Anyways i gotta get to Kelowna sometime this morning to pick up my dress shirt (or buy a new one) and tie.

I still cant beleive it, one of my friends is getting married. The first one as well (if you havent gathered that already). Thisll be an interesting experience for all of us involved i think.

Well Ryan, ill see ya at the ceremony :) . Ill blog about how it went, because i know ill be looking for things to note about, being as i dont have an actual Camera to my name >_>

The Journey: Press Start to Begin

2008-07-03T12:05:00.001-07:00

Starting now, i am about to embark on a brand new adventure, and adventure detailing things ive never tried before, an adventure into something that feels comfortable, yet, scary.

Being a wannabe Game Designer ive had it in my best interest to try and create a game in my mind that id both enjoy playing, and enjoy making. Its a frivilous balance as there's always good and bad and the appeal level is always up in the air. Being also a wannabe Games Animator i have the sole intent on doing my absolute best in beleivable virtual acting while maintaining smooth transitions. the art of manipulating graph lines is a fine one and one that i take particular pride in.

Ill be the first to admit, im not awesome at either. But this is where the journey begins.

Ive teamed up with an old friend of mine who specializes in modeling and texturing. My part of this two man commando team is Animation and Scripting. Hes also got most mapping while i tackle project management and exporting. The idea is not to be overrun with eachothers duties, but rather dabble in everything as its needed, so it should be an interesting development model when we have no real set plan other than "just get it done" and "babysteps" heh
Together we handle the games design, and decide on the technology. So far it looks like well be starting with the TGE (Torque Game Engine) as its cheap and easy, after working with thsi for a while we hope to integrate Havok Physics and Animation, if not then thats ok too, later on when we feel were confident and the beta releases prove positive, we plan to upgrade to the TAGE (Torque Advanced Game Engine) which basically enables shader support and allows us to make our game look modernized.

The product in said development is officially 'unannounced' at press time, but please, keep on watching this blog for little updates here and there as im sure im going to leak out information. I kind of already did if you look into this post enough.

Thats it for now before Kris kills me!

-k

360 is repaired

2008-07-02T15:21:00.001-07:00

or replaced XD

Anyways jsut got the email from MS saying my console is being shipped back to me. Now i onyl got to wait 1 more week.

Andy, Nathaniel, and all you other guys who play RSV2 on the box, ill be joining you soon (if you havent started already), though truth be told, i much rather enjoy the precision of the mouse :p

Stephen Unveils the new Hardware!

2008-06-30T12:14:00.001-07:00

R.I.P. George Carlin

2008-06-23T00:32:00.001-07:00

The world lost a great man last night. A man who truely saw for the world for what it was, a man who had many a face but remained recognizable, a man who played a role in many a great film, a man who has brought up such Comedic classics liek "The list of things you cannot say on TV" and much more.

I feel i lost a hero today, George Carlin, you will be missed.

Rest in peace buddy.

Life changing

2008-06-20T13:49:00.001-07:00

Ive made an incredbly important decision in my life.

Im moving back home temporarily for a month, to get my life in order and infuse some habbits which i sorely need before i even think about moving to Vancouver somewhere in December.

Good times indeed. I hope to take the best of what i have right now;

and infuse it into this body:

if you want an indication, that chuck norris shirt is incredibly tight on me now. And no, its not from washing it either.

Oy'vey

2008-06-19T09:31:00.001-07:00

Well i planned on getting down and dirty with some Maya based Animation last night right after work.

Course not.

I managed to figure out one issue ive been having since day 1 in maya 2008 thats been really holding me back, and deleted some poses that are either way to early in the animation and arent called for, or are just too goofy for the mood, oh well, under my own discretion i deleted em anyways. Thats about it.

Im not THAT easily distracted its when everyone else wants to do things around me and i get sucked into it, usually by will. Ive resisted numerouos times walking downstairs just to play some brawl, ive resisted going to movies, ive resisted going to the bar for Wings and other fun activities to try and remain productive. But, it jsut never frickin turns out that way regardless. I can almsot pinpoint the moments when my day is shot for productivity.

Maybe when the roommates are primarily in Vancouver this week i can get something done...

I wanna see if i can get some stuff done tonight, i at l;east want to get the conductor segment done, or the wink segment... either way i want to get this intro sequence out the door :(

-k

My FireFox 3.0 Extensions Recommendations

2008-06-18T13:09:00.001-07:00

With the official release of FireFox3.0, its about time to discuss, extensions.
Back in the beta, not alot of these extensions were compatible, thanks to some serious changes in the inner workings of the browser and how it handled these marvelous plugins.
So now ive made sure to grab the best of my favorite and gie them a proper run in Firefox3.0 to see if they work, and gladly, not only do most of them work now (as of today) but msot have gone through GREAT improvements in functionality and UI tweaks.

there are a few extensions which really stand out to me, and make my life jsut an awesome ball of awesome. So i wish to share with you my ABSOLUTE favorite standouts. Here goes:

1. FlashGet
ok you got me, this isn't technically a "Firefox extension" its a standalone program that works with Firefox. The fact its a download manager, accelerator, AND highly competant Torrent client is not the onyl claims to fame, if you hilight a URL and Copy it using Ctrl+C to your clipboard, itll send the URL directly to FlashGet to queue up and download. Oh ya, highlight entire block listings of address URLs the same way, and press Ctrl+C once, and itll queue everything up, in order.
Makes RapidShare downloading a snap.

2. DownThemAll
Built in Download Manager and Accelerator for FireFox, works pretty flawlessly, and quickly. Ive downlaoded 400MB objects in a minute or two. DTAoneClick is a nice feature that takes the last directory you saved your last file to, and and downloads to that in one shot.

3. FireFTP
Ive always applauded how useful FireFTP is. But v0.99 that came with the release of FF3.0, is jsut GODLY now. Now equipped with UI functionality tweaks, and better connection stability, i can now properly pimp out one of my favorit efeatures: On Site Editing. With < 0.98, you right click on a file on the server side and choose "Open wtih..." and chose your favorite editor which you add manually tot he list via options menu. itll make a copy to your temp int files and open it in your editor, make you change, save, and click "Uplaod" in the floating window.
NOW, with 0.99, all you have to do is Right Click the file and open with your favorite editor, as per said before. But now theyve cut out the middle man of pressing the "Upload" button and now just uploads when you press Ctrl+S to save. genius. Now i no longer have to micromanage 50 floating upload buttons LOL

4. FoxyTunes
its almost like a built in media player in FireFox. But instead it jsut controls your existing media players, which theres ALOT of comaptability for. For that extra hit of discretion, they hide your media player and make it look liek FoxyTunes is the only show in town. The added bonus is when you close FireFox, it wont stop the music, your media player jsut shows up again continuing where you left off, awesome!

5. PicLens
OMG, this is SO cool. its a Picture/Video browser thats compatible with some of my most common sites, DeviantArt and YouTube. It has to be seen to be beleived, but the plugin opens a new fully 3D window browser, and lets you seemlessly slide back and fourth across the RSS of the page, and gies you low resolution thumbnail views of what your about to see. Click on one, anywhere, and itll smoothly zoom in and start playing the video or downlaoding the higher rez image. you can browse to the actual page by clicking the "Globe" link under the pic. Its way to slick for words, seriously, just check it out.

6. ScribeFire
Im using this as we speak. Originally called "Performancing for FireFox" some thing happened an dnow their called ScribeFire, and thats totally cool with me. ScribeFire sounds better anyways.
So what is it? Its a blogging tool silly. It adds itself to your status bar as a golden page icon, and brings upa built in panel with all options imagineable to blog, including multiple account management and posting and.. like, EVERYTHING you could want, including a totally competant rich text editor.
in short: it kicks ass.

7. TwittyTunes
i only JUST starte dusing this totday, and its hilariously awesome. I click a button in the bottom right of my browser, and it talks with FoxyTunes to see which some im playing and with one more click i can tell the world what im listneing too. Or i can type in my own message no problem. Making it a competant built in Twitter aggitater.

8. TwitterFox
This pokes the Twitter server every couple minutes to see if your friends have posted anything and pops them up like MSN notifications, also allows you to reply to them in one shot too.
Awesome.

So theres a few, ill post later with links to each one. For now, jsut bring up the Add-ons window in FireFox and use the built in extension search for each of these and give them a proper shot. Who knows, you may just like them :D

Got any recommendations for me to try out? i lvoe screwing with Firefox, elt me know your favorite extensions or themes!

Unconventional

2008-06-18T09:59:00.001-07:00

So of course id catch a LITTLE slack from my post yesterday regaridng Vista, and to be honest i was prepared for it. Bombarded with "So why should i upgrade" and i always gave the same response "You dont". I wasn't trying to convert or convince anyone to upgrade, i posted MY Top 10 Reasons Why IM Glad I Switched to Vista. "im" or references to my first person are listed upwards of 3 times in a single sentence. Why did i post it? A quick guide to the common question "AWWW! Vista?! Why?!" so now i just copy paste the link to them and be done with it.

ONTO other things:

Demo Reel work, seems whenever i get that touch of motivation i need, something come sup. Take yesterday for instance, i had an uncontrollable desire to leave work and open maya and finish the intro sequence to my demo reel, unfortunately a house party got thrown, and if that wouldn't have made it hard enough to concentrate, i got invited to see the new Hulk movie.
the hulk movie was awesome, but by the time i realized what was going on, it was 2AM, now im normally inclined to work on my stuff either direct early in the morning or really early in the morning, but alas, work @ 9 :\
I plan on doing some stuff tonight but i think tonight is when me and Jami are starting Metal gear 4 again, which is something vie waited longer than my schooling for, so in some twisted sense, this actually takes precedent for me.

WOW. Yeah i got on the WoWagon. Again. for the third time. I havent stopped but ive onyl been playing on and off now and then. Im lvl16 as of this morning, so im quite taking my time lol. this new "QuestHelper" mod my brother downloaded for me is already helping wonders, so, thanks to himi might not ave to waste so much time looking for obscene things for hours on end.

CourtEngine: Production has officially been ceased for more prospective projects, such as:

ShellEngine: This is a new project, using highly modified technology from CourtEngine to transform from a desktop application to a web authoring environment, details are secret, but its a BIG project. ©DigitalAG

not much else past this point,

later days

-k

(ps. The Weekenders is still an AWESOME cartoon)

My Top 10 Reasons I'm Glad I Switched to Vista

2008-06-17T08:56:00.001-07:00

Normally id number these, but i like each of these features all the same.

- none of XPs Automatic updates requiring automatic Restarts
On way more than a bunch of occasions i left work with my computer locked so i can easily return to the job at hand i had to do, but upon returning, i could only gaze in awe as i see the blue Windows Login screen instead. Yup, XP had downloaded an update automatically, and then restarted my computer. Effectively killing off everything i had been doing the night previously.
Seriously, WHY? I cant understand why they force the restart so furiously, even when your ON the computer and it come sup, it never gives you the option to "Restart manually Later" instead it gives you a countdown to restart and your allowed to "delay" it a little bit longer. Balls.
- Integrated Search and Run built into Start Menu.
if your like me, you barely use the Windows Explorer to find your shit, as a tech nerd, you just KNOW where you've put your FunnyPix/ folder deep down in drive F somewhere, and thus find it easier to press Win+R and type in the path manually.
Now alls i have to do is click the windows logo as my start menu and type my path into "Search" and it'll do the same thing? even launch programs WITH parameters? Also allows me to look up key words for files and the start menu jsut starts listing shit with the same relative name As you type? frigging genius man!
- Voice Recognition. *
Ever have that dream of talking to your computer and itll do your shit for you automatically? well I have, shut up. So when i found out about Vistas buitl in Voice tool, allowing me to shout various commands to my computer via headset mic and allow me to write based on what it hears me say, i could write angry things to troll bait on youTube while pouring myself a cup o 'joe in the morning, or playing my Sega Saturn. Perfect!
* ok so its not exactly perfect, you should still run your voiced text by a Spell checker so you dont look like a retard online, cause online rep means everything you know.
- DirectX10.
OOHH i can hear the screaming OGL fanboys now "opengl is so much better" "directx is a plague upon which i can only wish upon my highschool bully", and still waiting on OGL3. Lets get something straight, i like OGL, and John Carmack is my alltime hero alright? But you have to admit, say you have an operating system which only allows OGL3 and all other OSs before it wont get it. Its that kind of empowering feeling that your 256x256 bumpmaps will look sharper and crisper, and thus have more meaning, then those other poor pitiful peasants with a color overlay of green, for envy. Plus as a 3D animator, ebing able to see real time shaders on my animated objects within my animation environment (XSI/Maya) is just hilariously cool (and useful).
- Pretty Interface
I use XP at work, and Vista at home. Both have high resolution LCD flatscreen monitors, and both have dual screen displays. Work has a decent graphics card 9we work with Flash here, no need for much bigger), and home has an 8800GT.
When i go home and work on Vista im greeted with the slick Aero interface, the transparent window borders which casually blur out anything behind them, and have that cool sheen effect when you move the windows, the glowy buttons, and black glass appeal, and the reworked Control Panel and other meaningful windows useful to geeks like me who care about this sort of thing. Its got a certain appeal, and while the Widgets may be a direct plagiarism to a certain other OS, they work and look nice.
When i get to work and see XP, its sort of demoralizing going from a serene and inspiring interface, to something that reminds me of blueberry bubblegum or children's playground Playskool plastics.
Don't get me wrong, XPs interface looks a hell of alot better than any other windows before it, im just saying, if your computer has the balls to do it properly, Aero whips the snot out of it.
- SP1
Ok I'll admit the first iteration of Vista was a balls experience, and i feel for those who did this and got permanently scarred and went backwards in time. but good things happen to those who wait and stick it out, and adapt to change every now and then. When Vista first came out, there was nothing compatible with it, but as time has progressed, almost everything worth anything is Vista compatible now. And now with Sp1, all those vanilla versions bugs seem to have magically disappeared. I urge anyone whos suffered through vanilla Vista to give SP1 a chance, cause while the minor annoyances still exist (UAC, just turn it off in your User management control panel), all the bugs and crashing issues seem to have.. calmly disappeared.
To put it shortly: Ive been running vista since SP1s release, i know its almost unheard of, but its NEVER crashed on me once, and i run that thing like its my bitch, and my friend who've witnessed me do this, can attest. Vista SP1, is very solid. If its crashing on you, your doing something wrong so stop visiting those porn sites, they only spell problems.
- Future Proof
Games for Windows Live. The fact some games already are Vista exclusive in OS compatibility, means the trend can only continue with all sorts of software. Sorry to those who wish to stick in the past with what they're used to, they're gonna miss on the next generation of PC titles/software. I could of course, be wrong about this, but i like to call it "Being prepared for the future" which is the exact reason i got a Quad core instead of a dual. its only a matter of time before all four cores will be used in gaming, but for right now, the cores do fine for Video rendering :)
Oh as for software compatability with older programs, sorry, i like to upgrade, shiny new things make me feel better about what im using (not that ALL upgrades are a good thing mind you, let us not forget about Adobe CS3 *shivers*)
- Plug and play, just works
yeah XPs got it and i believe so does 2000, but ive never seen it so flawlessly before. Plugging in all sorts of objects into a USB slot used to be a nightmare, as well as micromanaging and remember which USB slot i associated with various bits of hardware. For some reason with me, if i plugged my Webcam into a different USB slot than its used to, it'll require a reinstallation. Maybe i did something wrong or XPs just a bastard about figuring out that you just unplugged it from its normal slot 2 minutes ago.
I plugged in my MadCatz Xbox360 controller in, and in seconds its up and running and fully calibrated.
Mouse, Keyboard, Wireless Receiver, Webcam, every controller ic an hook up to it, etc. Ive never had to search for drivers myself. it just, heh, works!
- Inspiring
Whenever i sit in front of my computer at home running Vista Ultimate SP1, im inspired to do creative things, not just be lazy. More often than not im animating, or working in Flash, or screwing around in Photoshop putting mustaches on various Women and posting it to 4chan. Vista, if you'll allow it, can bring out your creative senses, and that in itself, just feels euphoric.
- Windows 7.
Its a little early to be talking about the next iteration of Windows. But to anyone who's seen the vids of it, know what it is: Vista on steroids and with Wingardium Leviosa cast upon it (don't cry Harry Potter fans, i dont read it). Win7 looks like vista, acts like vista, but its gigabytes smaller, and has better features, and supposedly compatible with everything. Plus being able to natively run a build of any previous version of windows for TRUE backwards compatibility, just rocks! Now you CAN have your cake, and eat it too!

im not here to change your mind about vista, honestly, i use what i want to use because the fraction of reasons listed above, appeal to me greatly. But this should answer the string of questions i get constantly on "Vista? WHY?!?!". now i at least have a link i can send those bastards.

Is there anything i dont like about vista? of course: its a memory and resource hog, it kills off any Dualboot you may have hoped to have (it likes to try and be your one and only true love), and Aero Lite looks like ass. Theres many others but nothing can be perfect, right? Even MGS4 has its flaws.

Thank you and good night.

OH speaking of high speculation: check this out

mmm Smexy.

-k

LOL MGS4 LOL

2008-06-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

Ok so to understand how weird this sounds, let me divulge a few small facts:

1. Im a HUGE fan of counter-terrorism and stealth
2. the entire MGS series while tactical and espionage and always good, always had poor control mechanics when it came to shooting
3. I still play the crap out of Vegas2 for its near perfect cover mechanics and excelelnt blend of shooting controls and precision
4. Game sliek Splinter Cell i eat up
5. i still like my action games like GRAW and COD4
6. im a sucker for graphics
7. i play paintball to get that tactical feel out in real life without getting myself killed for real.

So, with this in mind:

We got MGS4 and waited till around 5:30 to order some pizza, pop the game in, and get everyone in gear for some Metal gear Action. For some reason we decided on Big Boss Hard Mode initially and without knowing the controls, lol.
So we blast through the cinematics, and some gameplay segments, i got to shoot a few dudes, and i felt instantly dissapointed that i had no silencer, but whatever, i can work with what i got.
The soldiers must have superior fucking sight because they can see me way before i even get the chance to see them. But anyways, thats MGS for ya.

So i was invited upstairs to see a website while Jami and Peter took over, being on hard mdoe and seeing how they were doing previous to my leaving, i dind't honestly expect ALOT of progress, maybe a little, but still. What i saw captivated me. Good airsoft guns, are finally legal in these here parts. And whats better, were finding some good guns for nice prices.
So me and Cole started fantasizing about buying which guns for what price, which attachments to throw on, our strategies and positions, and even what tactical gear we wante dto buy, and tried to get a couple others in on this too.

To be honest: i COMPLETELY forgot about MGS4 going on downstairs. It wasn't until i was told that they made some serious progress and ive missed pivitol plot points, that, i couldn't bring myself to go back down and play it. Id be lost, and i want the full experience in order.

So anyways, im so far a go for this AirSoft malarky, and i need to start a new file on MGS4 to play through lol.

Sorry Kojima...

pure extacy

2008-06-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

4 little words: se eif you can peice them together
Gear, Solid, Metal, Four

ill give ya a hint: its Metal Gear Solid 4.

Stillwater represent, yo

2008-06-09T11:36:00.000-07:00

My god, Saints Row 2 looks incredibly badass.

I dont even need to say anything jsut chekc out these two trailers:

Sure its a GTA knockoff. But it does it SO well, that i dont care. These activities are badass!

Ramblings: Do i have Red on me?

2008-06-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

So i finally broke down and called Xbox Support, i should have a new 360 within 3 weeks time.

*sigh*

Ramblings: Scary guy was scary

2008-06-05T10:41:00.000-07:00

I was driving home from work yesterday when i came to an intersection like any intersection. Except at this intersection was something of likes which isn't entiely new or anything but was kinda freaky all the same.

This guy had to have been maybe 29 or so, fairly adult gentleman. He had green hair. A Mohawk with spikes liek the picture to the right, except each spike was fricking GINORMOUS. I SWEAR to god each spike was about arms LENGTH. They were HUUUGE. Now only that but he wore a spiked collar and chain leash. The leash, he was holding himself as if he was 'walking himself' or something. He wore a pure black wifebeater and black slacks about 14 sizes too big (but unlike the G-unit trend, at least he wore a belt to keep the pants up). i couldn't see the shoes, nor wouold i have rely been able to as i was in my car. K, thats not all, he wore ring piercings on the side of his mouth, in his nose, and on both eyebrows.

K, so in Canadian culture, most of this is normal run-of-the-mill rebel stuff. The things that really caught my asttention were the huge spikes and the 29yo less-then-perfect physique. What was it that creeped me out? He glared at me, and me specifically. He watched my car make the stop at the red light, and he stared directly at me in my driver seat. He then GROWLED at me in a manner i could hear with my eyes, and his fricking EYES TWITCHED.
He kept staring at me the entire time he walked in front of my car as he crossed the intersection. When he got to the other side he turned and left.

I was worried he was going to pounce on my car or something, to say the least it sorta left me shaken. Why me?
Im in a white 1992 Dodge Daytona, all that can be seen of me is my black t-shirt, my backwards black UnderArmor baseball cap, and my shades. Theres nothing to catch the eye of in regards to me that day.

Anyways, just thought id share caus ei got nothing else better to say.

-k

Ramblings: This just in...

2008-06-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

Lvl 10.

Ramblings: ... stays in Vegas.

2008-06-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time since ive talked about Vegas2. Im just not sure what else to say. ive done NOTHING but kick ass no matter where i go.
- Terrorist hunt? I think beating Kill house in Realistic/high Density with just a USP40 and lone wolfing it under a time limit should be indication enough.
- versus? I don't actually play online as i play this game at a LAN center with people, so we LAN it up to avoid LAG issues and excuses. I... think i lost my debut match, and a match here and there, but ive almost always been the MVP (top of my team)
- Ive lone wolf'd against upwards of 4 of my closest fragging buddies against me. Ive won every match, 90% of those matched with just a pistol, the other 10% i used my M8. Much swearing ensued.
- This and COD4 is where i wear the moniker and execute the playing strategy "The Silent Hunter...", also, ive carried over the COD4 clan tag [Yiff] from Kane86, to the tag [YIF] in vegas2 (unfortunately, Vegas2 only supports 3 characters). Sighness also sports this tag.
- Me and my crack team of regular pc-bangers have begun garnering somewhat of a reputation. For myself, ive gathered a reputation with silenced pistols and short hyper-accurate assault rifle bursts.
- ive overheard discussions that some players i play against have totally changed their playing strategy based on my kicking their ass

Now, im not saying im totally awesome or even tournament material, im just going by my personal experience mostly based on the comments ive received from those either watching me or playing against with, or even with me.

All i can say is: Finally, a good realistic online shooter with great cover mechanics.
Thank you Ubisoft.

Ramblings: Come my pet... lets hunt some chicken things...

2008-06-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Lord. I think my friend should work as a car salesman. He could convince me to buy a brand new corvette just because it has better air conditioning than a Plymouth Caravelle. Throughout all my hatrid and avoiding of this title for the THIRD TIME, ive been CONVINCED, nay, SOLD, into buying it, AGAIN. I am of course, referring to World of Warcraft.

This time im trying it from a different angle. What? oh hohohoh, no, im not Alliance. Im still Horde for Life Yo. But this alternate angle is: Ill be playing with friends. And my little brother. Rather than just strangers trying to tranform me from my Straight sexual status to something else entirely (more on that at a later date). Im also going to be trying something new in regards to what im going to do. Can you guess?
Well if your savvy with your eyes youll see this picture ive embedded into my post. it is of a Tauren Hunter. ive chosen to be this class as its somethign entirely different from how ive normally played these memorpeges. I usually end up being an offensive spell caster, usually of the Instantaneous and Status altering kind but ive been known to dabble in DOTs as well.
But ive only also ever played as Undead in WoW before, so this Tauren race is also a brand new experience. For my entire existance in wow before this one, ive been subjected to the ultra stylized undead world of my characters Phosphorus the Warlock and Xiraph the Mage on Khaz'Modan. So i felt with this server switch to join my friends and family, i felt an entire change is in order as well. From setting to gameplay style, this will all be a new experience to me from the get go. This wont be the same Wow ive experienced 2 times prior. And that in of itself, is actually kind of exciting.

Im still a little leary, and i only bought WoW for the CD key, i haven't gotten burning Cruisade and im not to on the up and up regarding that Litch King expansion on the horizon either. I have my free month, i have the game. Im giving it ONE more go, if i do NOT enjoy what im doing THIS time, then im doomed from MMORPGs forever, and thats that.

So, say hi to Tarexzen the Tauren Hunter of Ner'zhul

(image comes from here: http://music-fusion.blogspot.com/2007/07/my-warcraft-art.html )

Ramblings: YAMGS4T

2008-05-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

"Yet Another MGS4 Trailer"

To say this is a cool trailer, is a serious understatement

Game Status: Metal Gear and Megaman

2008-05-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

Me and Cody just beat MGS1 on the PSX last night, were onto MGS2 for the PS2 either tonight or tommorrow

me, Jami, and Cody beat Megaman2 on the NES the night before yesterday, were going to play and beat the first one either today or tommorrow.

=-=-=-

STATUS:

Metal Gear Marathon,
Participants: Kyle, Cody
Status: Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2 Snakes Revenge, Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake, ~~Metal Gear Solid~~, Metal gear Solid 2 Substance, Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence, Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots

Megaman NES Marathon:
Participants: Kyle, Jami, Cody
Status: Megaman 1, ~~Megaman 2~~, Megaman 3, Megaman 4, Megaman 5, Megaman 6

Ramblings: I wonder.... I wonder....

2008-05-13T12:13:00.000-07:00

I wonder if,

Gas prices will ever drop again...
Steven Harper will leave us alone...
Sidescroller games will ever make a comeback...
Sonic Unleashed will be good...
Sprite based games will ever be popular on a home console again...
traditional non-flash non-cgi cartoons will come back...
well ever get a good Sonic television show that can rival SatAM...
well ever achieve direct realism in real-time environments...
Virtual Reality is a thing of the past or an object of the future...
the reason hobos dont try to get jobs is because they're scared of the society surrounding them and the expectations that follow...
well ever get a 'phantom power' beacon that can power wireless objects remotely, effectivly eliminating wires and the battery needed to make them operate
Well eventually just revert back to Medival times once weve evolved to a point where anything else just seems frivolous.
there will ever be a time, where discrimination is non-existant

...

Ramblings: What happens in Vegas..

2008-05-09T09:24:00.001-07:00

I really dont know how to describe my experience with Vegas 2 other than "HolycrapwtfbbqDIDyouSEETHATOMGAWESOME!"
that should at least sum up my feelings in a nutshell. me and good fragging buddy Cole, hit up the PC Bang the other day on a whim and played up some COD4 and was in the middle of wiping newbs all over the floor when someone told us we should give Vegas 2 a shot. Me and cole likening tacticalness to a large degree, plus with a keen interest on weapons and counter-terrorism, we thought "meh, why not".

The experience was nothing short of stellar, and i think i can speak for me and cole here when i say: This is a game we've been waiting for, for years. A game where, it doesn't matter the tactic, as long as theres strong communication you'll survive, you just got to HAVE a tactic that isn't running and gunning. And not being a pussy helps too.
using the environment to your advantage is an absolute must and cover must be taken. I cant tell you or stress enough how awesome the feeling is when you come out of a massive firefight alive, with your buddy, without dying. Or the LeapFrog tactic of one dude checking corners and giving the all clear to move up, and they do the same.
theres also nothing quite like rappelling a wall and coordinating with your buddy by hanging upside down, with Raging Bull's, and taking out each target in perfect synch.

the game definitely has a great synnergy and a great balance between challenge and difficulty that make the game a must for any hardcore tactical counter-terrorism nut.

i whole heartedly approve :)

Who needs a first life anyways

2008-05-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

Ive always tried to avoid this 'second life' phenomina, all id ever hear about it is nothing short of deteriorating to my interest level, besides, if i joined it itd be a third life. My internet life seems to have already overtaken my actual first life so why do i need a third life to over complicate things matters for myself? That of course would be very hypocrytical of my philosophy on "dont knock it till youve tried it", but i do draw the line at a few places, like "Crack" or "Cocain" or "Working at fast food". There are just a few things ill always knock before trying. But a game never hurts you emotionally or physically so i gave it a shot about ayear back, and promptly uninstalled it the same day.

Second Life, if you dont know (and honestly, how could you not unless you've been living under a rock the size of kansas) is a social networking tool, basiaclly think of it like "The sims meets MSN meets MediaWiki" meaning, it looks like the sims, acts alot liek a chat program (but in 3D like IMVU), and the entire place besides the starting is pretty much all user generated content, all the way down to haracter models, animation, textures, props, even landscape.
Its a neat idea in theory, so long as you got someone to play with. otherwise being the loner in the situation, was bored to absolute TEARS.

So i was talking with a regular SL hound yesterday via normal chat programs like ICQ, and he informed me about the custom animation deal. Whats better if the animations are worth it, i can sell them for L$ (the in game currency) and better yet, exchange it for REAL currency. I can make a living, making crappy animation loops, how cool is that?

So i downloaded it, got the name Tarek Kjeller (tarek being the lead chracter from ym favorite foreign film 'Das Experiment', Kjeller jsut osunding liek the most badass last name available) and walked around with the default avatar for god know show long.

I need L$ and quick before the default character model drives me completely bananas, gotta spend money to make money i guess, lol.

So i downloaded "Qavimator" "qural"(sp?) and "Posemaker", all 3 are free animation tools direclty designed for animating in second life. Y'know, its not very often i get to say this: but i feel offended by these tools. Im sorry but there is absolutely no redeeming qualities behind either of those three tools. quarl is by far the worst of the three, as i never even figure dout how to adjust a bone and figuring out the only way to control the camera is via keybaord, which leads me to believe theres no mouse support and i control each joint via the keyboard too. Forget it, and then theres Posemaker which, is unlike ANY other animation type program ive ever seen in my life and confused me to all hell to no end. And finally Qavimator, the most functional and useful of the bunch, is still not that great. With no Undo, shoddy Gimble support, no Keyframe quickkey, and no quick save (everytime you save you must select the file? damn, whats the point fo the Save As... menu option then?). I however at least got a par tof an animation done, but without any kind of curve editor and fucking around with sliders instead of the gimbles, i quickly lost my patience.
So i turned to my professional tools, Motionbuilder is my best choice here but i sadly didnt have much time to try anything besides getting the SL reference rig in there. I beleive itll work cause its the only animation tool that natively comes with a BVH exporter which is the only format SL reads.

Anyways what did i do in SL? nothing i meandered around aimlessly for a while and found a shop for avatars, and then left, i didn't give it much playtime but then no one was around me, ever, i was all by myself the entire time, lol.

=-=-

So CouortEngine, where is it at?
check this out:

CourtEngine: The First Objection from KyleHarrison on Vimeo.

I expect to get full scene support finished today after i go for a bike ride.

Anyways, thats all im blogging about today, later days!

-k

Ramblings: Grand Theiving of Autos

2008-04-29T11:18:00.001-07:00

See that? Its mine. +Special Edition, for PS3. Its gonna be a gooooood night.

CourtEngine progresses. Cant wait to start recording segments, its ALMOST there.

-k

Youtube: SIDO - X-mas

2008-04-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

Too strange for me NOT to share

YouTube: Liar Liar: Ace Attourney

2008-04-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

one of the best mashups of one of my favorite games, and one of my favorite movies. its so perfect a fit i have to share this.

i only wished it was a longer clip.

Ramblings: Good to go again

2008-04-17T09:19:00.001-07:00

i only wish this was about my computer, but no, stating that im over my 'discouragement' and i formost apologize for sounding like an emo.
Datails on CourtEngine will follow in the next post or so.

Ramblings: Hmmm

2008-04-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

It appears im behind the times, why wouldn't i have thought that by now, someone would have invented a PhoenixWright type engine for fans to use? Oh right cause im naive and remember i enter these popular franchises late, all the time, on principle. Being a person who beleives in the underdogs and lets the huge franchises slide (usually) when i finally do engulf in pop culture, tis usually a bit late.

PhoenixWright i let slide for a long long LONG time, i played and beat the first one some time ago, then i played and beat the second one in 2 months (long time taken) and now im on PhoenixWright 3, and i started writing a small fiction based on custom characters in the same setting. Its at this point i thought id create an aniamtion engine i labaled as "CourtEngine" and made it in flash.
The Prototype is about a day from completion, and im feeling quite discouraged. See, Flash has limitations, and so when i came across Mechabowsers 'Case Maker 2' which follows the exact same frickin principles as my engine (customization & extensibility) i instantly feel like ive bene severely outdone, being as this is an actual PROGRAM which means its hardware accelerated to avoid any of Flashes limitations. Such as one that was sort of heart wrenching to me, i cannot get the text blipping in there, Flash skips most of them and the function (as lite as it is) slows down the text typing function to a crawl. So thats out, but everything is in there. Custom external scripts and XML ran engine, its a pretty sweet little thing i must say, but lets face it: its flash. so theres issues there.

I haven't fully tried Case Maker, if at all, so maybe ill give it a shot and see where i can improve upon his formula, only difference is mine is Flash ran. My customization may be just a bit easier/better. Plus i have no idea how you create spoken dialogue in Case Maker, may not be easier than XML. So well have to see. Typing this has helped my moral a bit now that i think of a few things, but still, if it fulfills all my credentials, i may as well ditch what ive been working on.

Itd be time to work on my Demo Reel anyways.

Tease: Something is cooking...

2008-04-10T11:00:00.000-07:00

Something strange is brewing is Kyles home studio. Stay tuned.

Ramblings: Metal Gear Marathon

2008-04-08T09:27:00.001-07:00

So the time is nigh, and the hour has dawned. I can smell Metal Gear Solid 4 from here. The musky strong bitter scent of fresh a Blu-ray Disc, burns the inner linings of my nose, and it feels good. Really good.

Me and my roommate Cody, have decided to run through all the Metal Gears on the hardest difficulties available to us, to educate, psych, and prepare us for the greatness that is Metal Gear Solid 4. So being as we both own the first Metal gear Solid on PSX (we each have our own copies), and dont own the others, whats the best thing we could do?

The Metal Gear compilation pack has been released a few days back, but its proving harder and harder to find. As an indication: i had more luck finding a Wii.This will be the perfect companion when i do find it, as itll allow us to rapidly switch to the next game almost immediately.

Peter, another roommate, sort of wants to be around when we do play the game, but, scheduling is always a bitch. So me and Cody setup an original Playstation console downstairs and hooked up to the nice sound system. All we need is a big TV and wed be in bliss. We played the original on PSX all the way up the final showdown with Psycho Mantis (my favorite boss). Cody had some 'issues' taking down Gray Fox in Hals lab, but after tasteing a brand new energy drink found on a gas station supplies run ("Stoked Energy") he managed to kick Fox's ass with all rations in tact.
After i took down Mantis, we agreed that Cody would be the one to beat Sniper Wolf's 1st encounter, meanwhile, allowing me to take down Sniper Wolf on the snowfield in the 2nd encounter. Allowing me to enter into the cutscene that forever changed my opinion of video games when i was a kid: Sniper Wolfs death sequence.
Ill also be the one handling the torture chamber, using a trick my dad taught me, that basically sends my arm into a spastic seizure for any length of time. I havent had to work the trick especially hard in many many year so itll be interesting. When i played the Gamecube "Twin Snakes" only a week or two back, i was on easy, so the torture chamber sequence was cheese.

So this morning i woke up and got through the Husky Wolf caves to the door where Meryl is about to feel the burn. God shes so useless, lol.

I dont expect us to beat the first one tonight, as conflicting scheduals will bring us about maybe 40 minutes of gameplay when i get home from work before Codys got to head to class for 3 hours, effectivly leaving the time to start at 9PM. Guess ill play some Devil May Cry 4 or Phoenix Wright 3 or catch up on Arrested Development in the meantime.

Now is no time to get a new social life. :)

Computer down...

2008-04-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

Production has stopped on everything im working on currently.
Vista has decided to bitchslap me across the face, rendering my system unusable until this issue is squared away. Shouldn't take more than a couple days or so for a full recovery.

Ps. i cant wait till Windows 7.

Ramblings: Guess whos back!

2008-04-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot to actually say this tiome around, exscept for the fact that im back from a 3 day trip up north back to my original hometown. The trip was awesome, picked up a couple suveneirs, got to hang out with Alex for a few hours, said my 'goodbys' and 'seeyalaters' to Gary and Wayne, Gary of which is the person i helped move up there.
bought a couple t-shirts, a couple posters, an original copy of MGS for PSX< which has since lsot its rare status now that the box set of all metal gears has been released, and contains an original PSX copy of MGS1. Meh, i stil have the case + manual :D *nyeah* Oh and i also bought an old school atari 2600 release (i think its rerelease because its much smaller and has no wood finish anywhere). But it works, and so do the 12 games i got with it. Oh and i also bought Mesmerize, System of a Downs second to last album release. ps. Wal-Mart sucks for CD selection.

The trip was good, a collective total of 1,700kilometers up and down British Columbia. Could imagine just how much fun that was :) (to put a number: 20 hours of pure driving, minimum). Its good to be back home. But damn, i miss Prince George. I almost didn't want to come back here.

Anyways i came home to find everyone, as per usual, playing Brawl. Seems in 3 days everyones skills have advanced to the point where i was trying super hard to even get kills, let alone think of winning. See what vacations do to you?!

So i will indeed this time be partaking in the 11 second club April Challenge and its got a clip from Arrested Development. No im serious, ill actually participate this time. I simply tried to start too late in the competition last month, and it didn't end up going to well.

K, thats all i got for now without going into super heavy details which no one cares about.

Stay tunes for WIP shots of my animation.

-k

Ramblings: A few of my favorite things

2008-03-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

Slow weekend really, Saturday was jsut filled with hanging out with folks who come by the house and stuff and such. Played some Brawl, COD4, and attempted to watch Rocky Balboa.
Sunday, we did end up watching Rocky Balboa all the way through, and man, i still love that movie. It never gets old to me.
Theres 3 types of movies i like: Shootemup Action (Shooter, Shootemup, John Woo stuff), Genuinely funny movies (and not jsut dumb cheap ha-ha movies like 'Are we there yet?'), and Motivational Dramas (Radio, Beautiful Mind). If its anything else, ill pass. Ive tried em all and got bored at alot, and would rather not feel like im wasting time better spent doing something else i enjoy more.
So i watched I Am Legend with Will Smith last night with a bunch of friends. Again, i should mention there is 1 thing i cherish more than anything: The Experience. And First Impression and Lasting Impressions and Thought Process on First Runthrough are all an intregal part of that experience for me. Even if its a movie ive seen a billion times over, i still prefer the correct optimal experience for my viewing pleasure.
So when the movei was being piched to me, the guys tried their absolute damndest to get me interested in seeing what sounded like just another zombie flick to me, and i finally caved, but i demanded the 'experience' and in order for me to enjoy a movie liek this thoroughly, i need to watch it in the evening, with some friends for entertainment value (and if i have any pressing questions), , and some food (preferrably pizza and pop).
So the whole day goes by and everyone is all "lets watch the damn movie now" and im like "sorry dude, were watching it tonight, If anybody wants me to enjoy the damn thing liek they really want me to, i have to see it when im not going to sit there and pick it apart and make fun of it, when it could genuinely be an awesome movie" as, im no movie watcher. im interetd in Interactive Entertainment, and this 'mood' even stems into the type of games i play, and when theres a cutscene i want to make sure im going to thoroughly enjoy it.

its.. very complicated to say the least, and not alot of people understand it, but im insanely picky about my experience while trying to be entertained. Hell, the Rambo movie in theaters, i even prepared myself for those. Rocky in the same way. hell even with Bloodrayne the Movie from Uwe Boll, it was jsut the perfect setting for it, and i found myself enjoying what has critically been acclaimed as a complete bombshell of a movie. its all about the experience people, sometimes, content just doesn't matter nearly as much.

So after waiting for so long, and going through all that trouble of getting shit setup and ready to go, we finally pop it in. About 3/4 in the movie, im REALLY enjoying it, having a good time, getting really into it, and then ouor friend Rae came downstairs as shes just come back from her trip.
"Oh i saw this movie! ".

...ya. I was pissed. In a split second the ending was completely ruined for me. Everyone else looked insanely frustrated as well. When i asked "Why would you do that?" and her response was "Cause i can" and gleefully skipped away out of sight.
The room was stunned. But w continued watching anyways, and i continued to enjoy myself. Despite the fact that the ending was no shocker, anymore.
so then after the movie, we watche dthe alternate ending, and it felt liek complete and utter cheese.

The moral of the story is: Dont blatantly ruin anything for anyone. Its simply not fair and just plain cruel.
If the response is "Oh but its so obvious" NO. What maybe obvious to some, may not be obvious to others.
They're called twists for a reason people. You never know when they come, how they come about, and what itll bring. Thats the whole FUN of WATCHING a PRODUCTION.

Yeh im still angry, yeah shes apologizzed to me, and yeah i took it. But goddamnit, that could have beaten some of my top favorite movies, which i base solely on first impression and lasting value. First Impressions are crucial to the enjoyment experience, if that sucks, it may as well never be given the time of day.

My top 10 favorite movies (may be inaccurate):

10. The Rock
9. Shootemup
8. Clerks 2
7. The Rescuers
6. Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
5. You know what, im throwing I Am Legend right here , ill be damned if im going to let the fact it was ruined for me sway my thoughts on it.
4. The Incredibles
3. A Beautiful Mind
2. Rocky Balboa
1. Rambo 4

Rambo 4, is by far one of the most satisfying productions ive ever seen. If its any indication, its the only movie in my life, ive gone to see twice in theaters. Both times completely willingly and my idea.

im not a movie buff, nowhere close, but i knows what i likes. And you wont find any star wars, star trek, harry potter, lord of the rings, or hell een the Matrix on my list. They are all good movies dont get me wrong, im not into them.
To any and al wanting to try and sway my opinion on that: forget it. It wont happen.

-k

Ramblings: Mario and Brawl

2008-03-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

yeah no, this isn't jsut one big topic about brawl. Let me continue here :)

So last night i got the opportunity to play Pete again in Brawl, as hes finalyl back from his vacation. With my new found love for Game and Watch i decided to take him on, while he chose Link.
Holy. Crap.

I havent suffered a beating like that, since Jamis surprise with Zelda fireball spammage (hes since quit doing that now, but you get the point). game and Watch just cant seem to get in close enough. Whatever move hes got, Links got a few counters.
Take for instance, his umbrella as he falls, can eject water, which rejects projectiles (i hear, havent pulled it off or anything) and deals damage to anyone who touches it. link can twist-fly whatever with hsi sword for his upB, and that kicks the umbrellas ass.
G&W's DownB is an oil bucket that soaks in projectile attacks, in order to unlesh 3 fold once its full. Its one of G&Ws ultimate "Gotchas", well according to Brawl, Links Bow and Arrow, Whirlwind, Boomerang, or even bomb, do NOT count as projectiles. Ive tried to catch each one of them. So that move is completely useless.
Link also has his Pogo downward sword hit, this is one move that makes zero sense to me how it works, but according to Brawl, that attack, knocks you skyward and star-KOs as long as you have 80% at least damage.
Dont even get me started on Links amazing recovery, both be and Tyler have hit link with a charge smash when hes at 150%, and he STILL survives!
Plus hes got insane speed & range, and somehow manages to hit for 3 times as much damage as the attack should allow. He hit me once with a standard sword attack, im already at 21% from 0%.

I could go on, but the point im getting at here is, the denizens of Hyrule, are all severely overpowered for their own good.
Someone on the balance team sure favoured these characters. The only one that feels balanced in Ganon, and, thank god. If he even had the ability to beat Fox in a standard attack, i think id cry and quit the game entirely.

Oh dont get me wrong though, i can still kick peters ass, he leaves himself open in the air quite a bit, but he makes insane usage of the dodge roll (as in, its his only mode of transportation on the ground), something ive been noticing not alot of people do in Brawl so far. And it makes sense, because he can barely be hit.

So far i think Links weakness is Snake, haha, believe it or not. Snakes standard A attacks, kick the crap out of Link, and by kick the crap, i literally mean: Kick him out. I took Link out with a diving roll at 70% or so, it was hilarious. plus Snakes standard air attacks make Link cry like hes the fresh'un in Prison. just gotta watch out for the Pogo, and everything is fine.

If you werent sick of hearing about brawl enough, you may have noticed my previous two posts, im not sure im gonig to continue those, at least, not here anyways.

So the interwebs cut out fairly early last night after the host went to sleep, so we were forced to improvise our entertainment. So me and Cody felt liek nostalgic gaming, and the SuperNES looked like a good target. ...And didn't feel like burning through Zelda, so we popped in Lethal Enforcers and, wow, got bored of that quickly. That game is missing some serious Blast Processing, because i remember the genesis version being far superior in every sense. After that, and finding out that my copy of Aladdin for some good old school sidescrolling platforming action was out fo the question (black screen o' nothing), we popped in Mario All Stars, and played the crap out of Mario 3. Man, ok, first Mario 1 speed run competition with jami, Mario World speed run with jami the other night, and now Mario 3 with Cody. Also i gave Mario Galaxy a shot the other day, its jsut been Mario mario mario mario mario. lol. so that was good fun.

Oh also, while waiting for my prescription to arrive, i picke dup a copy of the new Nintendo Power. All i gotta say is: Wow. This felt VERY familiar. now i never read nintnedo Power in my life, and now owning a Wii i felt it appropriate since it had a nice cover story on Mario Kart Wii, Okami Wii, and "Building Better brawls" article. But i was reading it last night, and it felt like very classic video game journalism, stuff liek what Gamepro and Tips n Tricks used to feel like. Liek they dont take anything very seriously at all, lots of just having fun with the publication, and i felt compelled to continue reading the magazine until 3:30AM. Official Playstation Magazine and Official Xbox Magazine or even Game Develop magazine barely does that, i read a few articles, put it down, feel a little iformed, and go about y day. Nintendo Power jsut pure enlightenment and entertainment, as well as somewhat informative, but you knwow hat, i liked that. though, theres ALOT of Blue Hedgehog bashing from the fan letters, which made me lol.

Also, its almost April, which means, im almost on my way to my hometown, Prince George. on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of April, ill be driving with my good friend Gary, to help him move into his new place up in the northern capitol of BC (thats literally what they called it, lol). So that'll be fun.

Thats all i got for now, until tomorrow!

-k

Tactics: Brawl - Mr. Game and Watch

2008-03-27T15:23:00.001-07:00

Preface:
Game and Watch is special. For what he lacks in frames, he makes up for in Power and Unpredictability. Its no secret, game and Watch is HARD to watch. Alot of his moves are sudden and come in first frame with little to no anticipation, while alot of his much deadlier moves have but a single keyframe of animation before blowing the opponent away, making him one of the scariest characters in the game to be against. you just never know what hell do next. Game and Watch is my main that im most effective with, and mostly for the above reasons.
Sure he looks funny and sounds funny with all the primitive LCD bells and whistles, and can very easily be written off as a joke character to those who haven't seen his true capabilities. But jsut as the saying goes: Don't judge a book by its cover.

LCD games have always scared me, now i know why.

Disclaimer:
Let me make this clear though: These are my strategies and opinions, and mine alone. Of course different playstyles exist and of course different opinions on moves are evident. nothing here is concrete, im just going by what works for me.

With the disclaimer out of the way, let get on with it:

Name: Mr. Game and Watch
First Appearance: Fire (i think)
Smash bros: Melee
Changes: Not much, has a couple new moves, most are pretty preserved though.
Affiliates: None
Rivals: Mario
Final Smash: Giant 'Oil Panic' Octopus
Level: Flat Zone (Melee), Flat Zone II (Brawl)
Watch out for: Adult Link

Strats Coming soon, this is merely filler

Tactics: Brawl - Wolf

2008-03-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

Of all the characters in Smash bros Braw, Wolf, is by far my favorite. And while im not nearly as effective with him as i am with Game and Watch, im going to post all my strategies with Wolf right here, for anyone else looking and watching, to help make more use out of Wolf. Theres not alot of info about the guy ive found so far, so here we go.

Disclaimer:
Let me make this clear though: These are my strategies and opinions, and mine alone. Of course different playstyles exist and of course different opinions on moves are evident. nothing here is concrete, im just going by what works for me.

With the disclaimer out of the way, let get on with it:

Name: Wolf 'O Donnel
First Appearance: Starfox 64
Smash bros: First Timer
Affiliates: Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi
Rivals: Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi
Final Smash: Red Landmaster

Strats Coming soon, this is merely filler

Ramblings: The Birthday Shenanigans

2008-03-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

So i offiically turned 22 as of March 26th at 11AM or something close to that.

The day started actually durign the previous day. After work, me, Jami, and Cody basiacly played a bunch of Wii stuff until the 'wii' (see what i did there? har har) hours of the night. I got 2 hours of a powernap, i woke up and with Jamis help, managed to start, beat, and master Super Mario World on the virtual console.

That took until about 12PM i reckon. Afterwards we got a bunch of people downstairs and played Brawl in Tourney mode until 5:30 or so.

Back at home with the family, we went to dinner at a fancy restraunt called "Zias". here i tried the Rack of Lamb Dijonnaise, as well as a few local variations of dark beer. The food, was absolutely stellar. The night ended with a slice of Hedgehog Cake, which in short, is like having a party, in your mouth, every bite. It. Was. AWESOME.

i crashed at 9PM because i didn't get much sleep the night previous, but its all good, the hours and hours leading up to the 9pm crash, more than made up for the remaining 2 hours i usually stay up till.

In terms of gifts, i got this sweet new Casio watch, its got a brushed metal finish and the numbers are shiny. cool!

Thats about it for my grand birthday adventure. I didn't post, because i was away from all things computers the whole day, so, yeah.

Anyways, stay tuned for my gut reaction and lasting impression of "Serj Tankian: Elect the Dead"

Ramblings: Salt and Vinegar

2008-03-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

Last night, was in short, pretty cool.

I happened to notice, that Ty, Pete, and pretty much everyone in the house is taking their break back to their own place, leaving the building pretty well empty. However, after slugging through Classic mode in Brawl as Wolf on hard, and finalyl visiting facebook again, i was promptly called by Cole to hang out and play some COD4. it was long after that that Cody came back too. So we all just played the crap out of COD4 and played some Gears of War on my PC. I loaded up that game purely just to show off the graphical capabilities of my computer, but they REALLY got into the damn game haha.

That was my night, but while i was browsing facebook i set up an event to gather a bunch of people up to play some Paintball on this coming Sunday. Its a REALLY late birthday thing for myself, as my D-Day is the 26th (tommorrow) and the 'party' is on the 30th.
Ive never hosted 'parties' or 'outings' or anything of the liek usually. When i did, i was a little kid organizing random things to happen, but then everyone would just play video games anyways (with or without my help, guess i just hang around Gamers alot, or i jsut sucked at hosting events lol) So this is a BYOC CFY CAYP (Bring your own Cash, Care for Yourself, Come as you Please) event, mostly so everyone is free to do what they will, wont feel confined to what i have to say, and fi they have to go, they can go with no questions asked.
I almost dont mind if it was really only me that showed up to the field. I know that wont happen, but what im saying is, this sunday is for me, and if my friends who ive invited show up, itll jsut make the day all the more fun and truly awesome, especially if someone brings some sort of recording mechanism (camera).
See you on the field guys! Should be a fun way to end the school break :)

I need to practice more on Brawl, just need to get good with Wolf. Hes frigging a pain to get used to once youve used Fox to any major extend, though Wolf does a few things that i thoroughly enjoy. Such as his Up+B, while not the "FireFox" as people have been calling it, its like "Air Wolf" or something lol. Its a TON quicker to pull off, and when it hits, carried the bastard along the trail, and Wolf lets out a side kick at the end to send them flying. Sure it may be shorter distance than the Fire themed Up b of Fox and Falco, but what it lacks for in distance, makes up for in attack power, which, Brute Force is what Wolf is all about. Though i tell you, Master Hand at the end of classic was a pain in the ass, simply because Wolf has no good air moves aside from the Air Wolf thing, and that mvoe is only good againt foes who will travel with wolf collecting damage as he picks them up. Master hand doesnt do that, rendering the move somewhat useless.
My entire 300 damage to the bastard consisted entirely of the 5hp per shot Blaster and jump kicks. .. Yeah. Took. Forever. Got a better strategy for Master Hand with Wolf? PLEASE for the love of all things holy, let me know! i know Wolf has a very shitty air game, but theres gotta be a couple things i can do.
Also if anybody knows how to Run and Gun with Wolf, let me know, ive been trying for ages, and i keep reading he can do it, but i can NEVER pull it off...
Also, Wolfs taunts are some of the best in the game.

Mr. game and Watch, what can i say, hes just a frigging powerhouse, but he requires you to be up close and personal. Even his Final Smash doesn't have any range. But hes still my second favorite Main.

then we have Fox, when i need speed and combo damage, this is the guy i choose.

Then we have Sonic, which i still need alot more practice with to even be called Less than Effective.

Thats it for me for today,

-k

Ramblings: Happy Post-Easter

2008-03-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

I just came off reading Jami's blog entry this morning (holy crap kid, type much? LOL) and feeling a little down from typing so ill keep this short.

I went home for the weekend, starting on Friday (which was a stat-holiday for my job, so day off for me!) so i packed up my Wii and left my house. i could feel Tyler and Codys disappointment as i packed up my Wii, haha. Don't worry guys, a Brawl session is right around the corner!

I went with gary to Penticton, he had a CD he wanted to pick up and i wanted to grab a second Gamecube controller. Going in for a $20 item, apparently leaving with some $85 of stuff, lol.
- Gamecube Controller (official, non-thirdparty)
- Gamecube Memory Card (madcatz, but works)
- Metal gear Solid: Twin Snakes
- Starfox: Assault

Ive been getting alot into the Starfox series as of late. Much in the same token i got into the Sly series, Ratchet and Clank, Sonic, and various other franchises.
I obsess over cartoon games it appears. And thus i shall continue to do so because i do appreciate the genre. Shooting, Platforming, Theivery, Open World, i don't necessarily care, these games tend to focus on having plain old fun than incredibly realistic graphics. And isn't that what gaming is all about?

I absolutely ADORE and praise the Metal Gear Solid franchise, because the gameplay is fun, the story is.. insanely engaging, and the characters are all likable whether you hate them or like them. Gear 1 on PSX was the very first title, that made me very proud to be a gamer. The second scene with sniper wolf dying, actually brought a tear to my eye for its beauty. I REALLY didn't think a game could DO that to a person! MGS2 introduced alot of things to the series in terms of gameplay that were sorely needed, such as aiming in first person mode for instance. The storyline behind it was again, simply stellar, though i was very angry about controlling Raiden for the majority of the time, i wanted Snake!
MGS3, i never actually played to any extent, though i did watch my friend Alex play it in its entirety so i know the storyline and how it all went down. The final cut-scene at the end of the game left me completely and utterly speechless, to the point where i just couldn't move, i was paralized, and all i could do was be basked in the beauty of the cutscene execution. The music queues, the voice over, the animation, and even the graphics, all worked in complete harmony to deliver one of gamings most satisfying endings in history.

in short: The MGS series, is what inspires me most. But i definitely enjoy my cartoon games.

When it comes to Brawl with me vs. anything Jami does, yes its true, his Zelda always manages to piss me off. let me explain
1. The kid has insane survival skills. Doesn't matter WHAT game he plays, he always manages to survive the longest.
2. Impeccable timing. Hes got the timing of shit LOCKED DOWN TIGHT. So thus, always manages to get me just as im exiting my block, no matter how much i switch up the timing. I dont know whether its just luck or he notices something most dont. But its not just blocking, its EVERYTHING.

Anyways, its because of these two qualities in his gaming habbits, that make him a nearly unstoppable force in Brawl. So when he practices and makes use of his Main's, hes basically god on the field, choosing who he was to off first. It never helps that for some reason he gets the Smash Ball on whatever hit he lands on it, while everyone else smacks it ariund for like 5 minutes. So i played someone who knew all of Zeldas moves, and i kicked his ass with Wolf. So, theres definitly something different about Jamis gameplay habbits that make her an unstoppable force.
I still think Zelda could do without at least 1 or 2 of her moves, such as th deflector, i really doubt she needed that, coupled with everything else she has. Shes liek the mix of everything awesome of every character, powerful CONTROLLABLE ranged EXPLOSION of DOOM, akin to Snakes Nikita. Reflector of peril, much like Starfox's reflectors, her teleport maneuvers makes SURE you nver have a goddamn CLUE where shes going to land, her Sheik/transform ability is much like Pokemon Trainers, in which they cant be touched during transformation, and both her standard up and side smash attacks are repeated hitters with a final strike at the end of it which can send you off the screen. And nto to mention, her final smash is an instant kill so long as they are in front of her from ANY distance! Her repitoir is, in short: "Unfair", in my eyes, and clearly unbalanced. Shes like the boss character that has everyones moves except stronger.
As for his other mains, Zero Suit and Peach, Peach jsut has one hell of an annoying final smash (no matter what, your asleap allowing her to pick each one off individually), and Zero Suits whip is just annoying. But aside from that, both characters feel pretty balanced in accordance to the game.

*ahem* anyways, before i start ranting, Jami its not that we think YOUR cheap with Zelda, we just think ZELDA herself is cheap enough to warrant the 'ban'. Everyone else is cool, lol.

Im ending it here as i cant feel myself typing any less intelligently than i am right now, so, later!

-k

Ramblins: The Return of Vlogs and a new Feature!

2008-03-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let you know, that Vlogs will be making a return, and a return they shall.

Another quick announcement, is a new feature coming to the Kyle Blogosphere, but will let my Vlog later today do the talking.

Very very short blog post today, as something needs my attention right now, so until later

-k

EDIT: Enjoy this picture, it made me laugh hysterically.

Ramblings: 11 Second Club March Contest

2008-03-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

So with the "Garbage Day" and "Chasing Amy" Machinima projects sitting on the shelf for a little while, Ive allowed myself to sign up for the 11 Second Club, and even though i only have a week and a half left, ill still try my best to participate in the March contest, which uses an audio exerpt from "Amadeus".

Im totally stoked, i only imported the "Andy" meshs and set up the first body poses, and a crappy 3pt lighting setup, and im having a total blast! I REALLY didn't want to sleep last night, er, this morning.
This competition is allowing me to use maya for animation in ways i never used it before. Ive never tried animating rigs, facial structures, animation graph, or any of that stuff in Maya. All i ever used was rotating and translating the physical bones themselves in my simple simple structures.

Though i wont lie, getting back into the swing of Maya, may have been easier for me than most would trying to adapt (i used Maya for like 3 years before switching to XSI at school), im still having issues with keyboard shortcuts. Also trying to remember simple tricks like getting shadows from light sources to show in the persp viewport in real time have been an effort in trying not to strangle the neighbors cat in frustration.

Im not exactly sure what i want to do with my other blog blog.blackjagstudios.com, it served me well as a blog for critique from fellow peers and teachers alike, but i don't use it anymore since im out of school, and following two blogs at once would kinda suck, which is why i'm creating a new Label for "11 Second Club" because ill be posting my WIPs here instead of there.

Ill leave it up for Legacy reading and showing, but you can see all of my stuff (and vlogs even) at my Vimeo account anyways :)

im done for today, to make your day complete, its wednesday, and you know what that means!

-k

Ramblings: A Sober St Patricks Day

2008-03-18T09:11:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

So another St. Patricks day has come and gone, and it was a very.. game filled one, haha. Its nice to know i single handedly now have the power to distract anyone and everyone from "normal" socializing to "Fun and exciting bantering and disrupting friendships". With the power of all of the systems in the house, plus multiplayer blockbuster hits like Smash bros Brawl and COD4, manages to turn just standing around and drinking with the occasional burst of laughter from the lewd comment shouted out at random, to having a real competitive and slowly degrading performance multiplayer bash.

Brawl was basically the center of all attention last night, but, it definitely got to a rocky start >_>, me and Jami, needed to unlock all of the characters, so we went from 50% to 90%, beating SSE on my machine, and going back to getting Jigglypuff, Wolf, and Toon link. So with all characters unlocked and 4 hours into the "party" it was time for some brawlin.

After that there wasn;t a ton of interest from much anybody else, they just watched me and jami beat SSE for 4 hours, so it was understandable. But once the distraction part of the party left (a few who shall remain nameless) people started joining in, including Cole, Cody, Ben, etc etc etc.
A little bit later, a fairly frustrated Cole asked me if he could use my 360 to shoot some people in the face, to relieve some stress. So we popped in COD4 and had some fun with supreme stealth classes and my Barret 50. cal sniper class.

This trend kept going until 2AM or so, when everyone disbanded and went to bed.

I didn't drink a thing, i was to busy gaming to think about it... haha. id make a terrible irishman.

So theres my unprofessional sounding blog entry of the day.

-k

Ramblings: Backburner...for now

2008-03-17T13:15:00.001-07:00

Ok, ive had it about to here with the machinima project. its pretty abundantly clear that adding animations to an existing animation bank is just not somethign the devs want you to do. I guess they are afraid of all the simulated porn that could eminate from such an idea.
Ok im bitter what can i say.

So in order to do anything to an existing character in the unreal games, i have to use 3D Studio max, cause for some reason the damn thing just doesn't want to export bone structures in .3ds format, and i cannot for the life of me, find the OBJ exporter. plus on top of this, i havent even the slightest clue how to use Max, so learning new software for me at this point is a little out fo the question.

So screw it. Ill get back to this project at a later date, i will however still use Unreal 3 for this, but for now my patience has worn itself thin. I could have, in the time its taken me so far to setlling on the idea, the engine, the method, the software, and the research, to get to this point, made a full features animation portfolio to show that im not just sitting here picking at my eyeballs all day long.

Anyways, look forward to the 11-second club challenge as ill be soon participating in that.

As for FP, no worries, its still going, these are just side projects.

Ramblings: SCORE!!!

2008-03-14T16:02:00.001-07:00

WOOT! Thats right Bitches, the Wii, is finally mine, and in my grasp.

I called EB around where i live on a whim and asked if they had any Wiis, turns out, they jsut unpacked 4 of them. So being as they werent able to hold any for me... i asked for an extended brake and jumped in my car and drove, THREE towns over, in a matter of minutes, through traffic jams and Ms. Daisy drivers, and finally reached my destination. Picked it up, droppe dit off at home, and booked it back to work. Now i just got to wait till i get home in order to do anything with it :)

So yeah, i now own all three of the consoles, as well as 1 of the handhelds (DS). Im almost too happy to care if anything goes wrong today :)

its a Smash bros brawl night tonight, im looking at you Pete and Ty! And im also looking at you Jami, we have to play online sometime ;)

-k

Ramblings: Quick First Impressions of Unreal Tourney 3

2008-03-14T11:06:00.001-07:00

Ok so i finally installed Unreal Tourney 3 yesterday, both to give it a shot, and to try the toolset. Well then a friend came over and we ended up having a massive Army of Two session instead, followed up by watching Tenacious D: POD. So it wasn't until around 2Am that i finally got a chance to sit down with it. So naturally it wasn't long.

First thing i noticed, was this game runs silky silky smooth on the highest of settings on my system, which makes me super super happy. Im always a fan of bleeding-edge performance. it was around 2:30AM when i ripped open the documentation at UDN to see what extra tools i needed.

Well apparently i need nothing as i sat there for like an hour trying to find an SDK of some kind, now i dont remember much (being that late) but if i recall, im to compile my own SDK. But im jsut not entirely sure if thats what i NEED. All im looking to do is add animations to preexisting characters, so to my understanding i use the Matinee and FaceFX tools located in the UnrealED itself. The model/animation viewer and all tools have the rendering engine built in, which reminds me of Doom3, which is a definite step in the right direction.

I didn't get much further than this as i ended up passing out on my keyboard, causing my system to freak out and wake me up again; but 2 things i must ask:

1. How do i obtain this "UCC" utility or whatever for compiling UnrealScript? Is that in UED too?
2. How do i extract stuff from pre-existing packages? Essentially hwo can i possibly work with the assets already available?

Ramblings: Sonic Unleashed

2008-03-13T14:39:00.000-07:00

Quick post, it appears SEGA has patented a new sonic title entitled "Sonic Unleashed". Could this be the next platformer Sonic game? Could they possibly make it better than the 360 version? Will it be japan or USA studio doing it? Anyways, the good guys over at SEGANerds posted this and i thought id post it here too.

Keep your fingers crossed! I know mine are...

Ramblings: Totally Unreal Epic Journey

2008-03-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

So im totally stoked to play with the Unreal 3 engine. Again if you havent been following my grand adventure into the world of machinima, let me recap:
years ago i saw a machinima entitled "A Few Good GMen" by Nailbiter, which was the Courtroom scene from the movie "A Few Good men" where Gman was Jack Nicholson and Barney was John Travolta. It was definitly a step in the right direction from what i wanted to see in a Machinima production. Most would take real gameplay footage from online games like Team Fortress 2 and Halo and just adlib dialogs over character movement. Some would write scripts and just do the same thing (like Rooster Teeth and their great Red vs Blue series). Some even take Machinima oriented game slike 'The Movies' and use that to make their shortfilm riddled with canned animation and reactions. Where i was inspired was the fact "A Few good GMen" was custom digital acting, within a game engine, compelte with lip synch. And THAT is totally up my alley.

On my journey ive traversed through trying to use Valves Source engine like nailbiter, but where i wanted to go where Nailbiter didn't, was custom actions. Nailbiter did a phenomenal job using canned actions blended together to look like they fit the part, i want to animate my own sequences entirely by hand. The simple idea of simply adding animations to a preexisting characters animation bank, was definitely more troublesome than it was worth, so i then turned to Id Softwares Doom3, reminiscing about the scarcely layed cutscenes inspired me to think that it was going to be more robust, and the md5 model/animation system would be alot easier to add sequences to a characters bank. This is of course true, once you figure out the Doom3 DEF system, which si pretty complex with all of the switches and ways of doing things.
I was about ready to animate my first part of the Garbage day lip synch, when i got landed with a fantastic computer purchase deal.
i was reluctant to find out Doom3's tools are largely incompatible with vista, though the game itself runs great. also Maya 6's License Server is also incompatible with Vista, rendering the main 2 tools useless. So i tried to installa dualboot of XP and that didn't go over so well as i forgot, HPs hardware is only compatible with ITS drivers, and ITS drivers are only vista compatible. so that was a 5 day downtime thanks to complications and legal matters.

So I've made a decision to switch engines again, this time, ill be working with longtime Id Software's rival: Epics Unreal3 Engine. Why this one? Because its the most modern engine i can easily get into. CryENGINE2 doesn't have enough public documentation, not enough community support. Id tech 5 isn't available yet, and the other engines are proprietary enough that the tools aren't going to be sufficient, plus i know Unreal3 is Vista compatible and as with most tools used to work with it, and has quite the community behind it. So in the end: It just makes the most sense.

So i think when i get down to it, ill write a "Gut Reactions" article on how i feel about it, as i traverse around with it. A "Gut Reactions" article is one i continuously post and add to throughout the extent of time im exposed to it. Leaving previous edits and timestamps unedited to keep the integrity of changing opinions.

Also, Alex is buying Army of Two today, so ill be playing some mean coop online with him.
Cant wait, itll be my first true online experience with the Playstation 3 outside of simply online demos and junk.
See ya online Alex ;)

-k
9ps. in case you haven't noticed, i update this blog regularly and constantly, so to help save confusion, everything within the day i write is encapsulated between bright orange day stamps to form groups of posts from the same day, so don't think that this post is just for today)